RD
80
W5
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1900
DISCOVERT OF „
ANESTHESIA BY
Dr. HORACE WELLS
nttUt
Philadelphia :
Patterson & White Company,
1900.
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Library of Congress
Two Copies Received
FEB 19 190)
^ Cwprif ht entry
FIRST copy
4P
Copyrighted, 1900,
BY
Patterson & White Co.
INTRODUCTORY.
At the February, 1894, meeting of the Odonto-
logical Society of Pennsylvania, attention was called
to the fact that in the coming December would oc-
cur the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of an-
esthesia by Horace Wells, and a resolution was of-
fered that a committee be appointed to promote a
fitting celebration of that great event. Drs. J. D.
Thomas, Louis Jack, A. P. Brubaker, E. C. Kirk,
and D. N. McQuillen were appointed as the com-
mittee.
The idea prospered until it grew to such dimen-
sions that it was deemed proper to make the celebra-
tion a national affair.
At the meeting of the American Dental Associa-
tion held at Old Point Comfort, August 7, 1894, Dr.
J. D. Thomas, of Philadelphia, offered a resolution
for the appointment of a committee of nine to take
into consideration and report at that meeting meas-
ures for the proper celebration in December, 1894,
of the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of anes-
thesia by Horace Wells. The resolution was
3
Introductory.
adopted and the following gentlemen were ap-
pointed: Drs. Thos. Fillebrown, of Boston; J. Taft,
Cincinnati; Jas. McManus, Hartford; W. H. Mor-
gan, Nashville; W. C. Barrett, Buffalo; A. W. Har-
lan, Chicago; H. J. McKellops, St. Louis; Thos. A.
Weeks, Minneapolis, and J. D.Thomas, Philadelphia.
The committee at a later session presented the
following report :
Mr. President and Gentlemen :
Your Committee upon Anesthesia would report that it has
agreed upon the following motions :
First. That the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of
anesthesia by Horace Wells should be properly celebrated by
the dental profession of America.
Second. That the celebration should comprise the presenta-
tion of two papers : one upon the "History of the Discovery of
Anesthesia," and the other, upon the "Application of Anesthesia
to Surgery and its Benefits to Mankind" ; and that Dr. Thomas
Fillebrown, of Boston, Mass., be invited to present the paper
upon the "History of Anesthesia," and that Dr. J. E. Garretson,
of Philadelphia, Pa., be invited to present the one upon the
"Application of Anesthesia to Surgery."
Third. That a banquet be given in honor of the event, at
which prominent gentlemen shall be invited to make addresses,
and that the papers and addresses, properly edited, shall be com-
piled and preserved in a memorial volume appropriate to the
importance of the occasion.
Fourth. That after the claims and advantages of the cities of
Hartford, Boston, Washington, New York, and Philadelphia had
been presented and discussed, Philadelphia was unanimously
selected as the place of meeting.
Fifth. That there be three committees appointed ; an organi-
zation committee of nine, an executive committee of eleven, and
a general committee of fifty.
The following gentlemen were nominated upon the several
committees :
Committee upon Organization. — J. D. Thomas, James Mc-
Manus, H. J. McKellops, Thomas Fillebrown, A. W. Harlan,
Thomas E. Weeks, J. Taft, W. H. Morgan, W. C. Barrett.
Introductory.
Executive Committee. — J. D. Thomas, E. T. Darby, S. H.
Guilford, D. N. McQuillen, E. C. Kirk/Louis Jack, C. N. Peirce,
Philadelphia; A. L. Northrop, Wm. Carr, New York; H. B.
Noble, Washington, D. C. ; Jas. McManus, Hartford, Conn.
General Committee. — Dana W. Fellows, Maine ; James Lewis,
Vermont; J. L. Williams, R. R. Andrews, Massachusetts; E. D.
Gaylord, Connecticut ; C. A. Brackett, Rhode Island ; S. B.
Palmer, S. G. Perry, O. E. Hill, W. W. Walker, New York;
R. M. Sanger, C. A. Meeker, New Jersey; C. R. Jefferis, Dela-
ware; J. A. Libbey, W. H. Fundenberg, Pennsylvania; B. Holly
Smith, M. W. Foster, Maryland; J. H. Moore, Virginia; V. E.
Turner, North Carolina; T. T. Moore, South Carolina; H. W.
Coyle, B. H. Catching, Georgia; C. P. Robinson, Alabama; Geo.
B. Clements, Mississippi; G. J. Friedrichs, Louisiana; W.'R.
Clifton, Texas; A. H. Fuller, J. D. Patterson, Missouri; A. O.
Hunt, Iowa; C. M. Baily, Minnesota; T. W. Brophy, G. V.
Black, G. H. Cushing, Illinois; S. B. Brown, Indiana; J. S.
Cassidy, F. Peabody, Kentucky; J. Y. Crawford, H. E. Beach,
Tennessee; G. L. Field, Michigan; H. A. Smith, C. R. Butler,
A. F. Emminger, Ohio ; A. H. Thompson, Kansas ; A. W. Nason,
Nebraska; G. H. McCausey, Wisconsin; W. J. Younger, C. L.
Goddard, E. L. Townsend, California ; Geo. H Chance, Oregon ;
W. E. Burkhart, Washington.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
In pursuance of the foregoing the fiftieth anni-
versary of the discovery of the anesthetic properties
of nitrous oxid by Dr. Horace Wells, of Hartford,
Conn., was observed in Philadelphia, December n,
1894, by a public meeting in the afternoon in Asso-
ciation Hall and a dinner at the Union League in
the evening. The Association Hall meeting was
attended by the students of the Pennsylvania and
Philadelphia Dental Colleges, the Dental Depart-
ment of the University of Pennsylvania, and of the
Medico-Chirurgical College, besides many well-
known members of the profession in this and other
5
Introductory.
cities. At this meeting Dr. R. Huey offered a reso-
lution, which was adopted, calling for the appoint-
ment of a committee to take action toward placing
a memorial to Wells in Washington, D. C. The
president appointed Drs. Jas. Truman, W. F. Litch,
E. C. Kirk, S. H. Guilford, with J. D. Thomas,
chairman and treasurer.
Immediately after the celebration exercises the
chairman sent out circulars soliciting subscriptions
to the fund, which were handsomely responded to by
contributions of individual sums from fifty cents to
twenty-five dollars, and by societies sums from five
to two hundred and fifty dollars, from every state in
the Union, making a grand total of eleven hundred
and five (1105) dollars, which has enabled the
committee to place in the Library of the Army and
Navy Medical Museum, in Washington, a beautiful
bronze bust, executed by Hartley, of New York, in-
scribed "Horace Wells, the Discoverer of Anes-
thesia. Presented by the Dentists of America,"
which has won the approbation of all who have
viewed it.
The honor which attaches to the discovery of
this great boon to mankind has not been uncon-
tested, various claimants have disputed the right
of Horace Wells, a dentist, to the high place in
human regard to which his unselfish investigation
and beneficent discovery entitles him. The testi-
mony brought forward in connection with the anni-
versary meeting held in Philadelphia goes far
toward removing any lingering doubt upon the sub-
6
Introductory.
ject and places the history of Dr. Wells upon a foun-
dation before the world which assures to him his
rightful place in history.
Encouraged by the widespread interest which
the meeting aroused, and believing that a perma-
nent record of the events which made the meeting
a memorable occasion in the history of the dental
profession will be an acceptable souvenir to all dental
practitioners who have a pride in the achievements
of their profession, the committee has prepared this
record, which it submits in the hope that it will
serve not only as a memento of a work that has shed
luster upon the name of American dentistry, but
also as a stimulus to higher professional endeavor.
Report of the Proceedings at Association
Hall. Tuesday, December 11, 1894.
Dr. Thomas called the meeting to order and
called attention to the banquet to be held at the
Union League in the evening, and stated that after
adjournment an opportunity would be given to all
who so desired to give their names in as wishing to
attend.
Dr. Thomas then said: As chairman of the
Executive Committee, it now gives me pleasure to
introduce to you Dr. J. Y. Crawford, of Nashville,
Tennessee, President of the American Dental Asso-
ciation, who will address you.
Dr. Crawford then said: Mr. Chairman, mem-
bers of the dental profession of the city of Philadel-
phia and other cities, at the meeting of the Ameri-
can Dental Society, held in Virginia, the second
Tuesday of last August, at Old Point Comfort, by a
resolution offered by J. D. Thomas, D.D.S., of this
city, there was a committee appointed by the Ameri-
can Dental Society to take under their management
and control the organization of the present celebra-
tion that we now propose opening in honor of the
9
The Fiftieth Anniversary
discovery of the anesthetic properties of nitrous oxid
gas by Horace Wells on the nth day of December,
1844.
In pursuance of that resolution, by the direction
of your National organization, as its humble repre-
sentative, I am here to-day before you to inaugurate
the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the
Horace Wells memorial.
We have provided a program which I am sure
will be of interest to you all, and I will not further
detain you by a discussion of the question at issue.
It is enough for the dental profession to know that
fifty years ago to-day the human family was emanci-
pated and freed from pain by the invention of an-
esthesia in a surgical way. I will be excused for
saying that I am one of those who believe that by
virtue of the peculiar circumstances and the moral
forces that led to the wonderful development of
Horace Wells, of Hartford, Connecticut, on the
nth day of December, 1844, that it was for first
legitimate adaptation of anesthesia in a surgical way,
under proper restrictions, and to him is due at least
the amount of credit that would at once entitle him
to that recognition at the hands of a just and liberal
public equal to that which has been accorded to such
characters as Jenner and Harvey for their discov-
eries.
Your Executive Committee informs me that, in
addition to the provision for the entertainment this
afternoon, to-night there will be a magnificent ban-
quet for the further celebration of this important
Discovery of Anesthesia.
event in dental surgery and in commemoration of
this humane, this eminently humane, contribution to
the healing art.
Now, without further detaining you, gentlemen,
I have the pleasure of calling your attention to the
program which will be carried out for us. First, by
the reading of a paper by Professor Fillebrown,
of Boston, on the subject of
THE HISTORY OF ANESTHESIA.
To-day we'll
"Poise the cause of Justice in equal scales,
Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails."
And
"If circumstances lead me, I will find
Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
Within the center."
[Shakespeare.]
Fifty years ago to-day there was enacted in the
city of Hartford, Conn., the first scene in the devel-
opment of the grandest and most beneficent discov-
ery the world has ever beheld, the Discovery of
Modern Anesthesia; and this during a period which
has exceeded all others in the magnitude and im-
portance of the discoveries made in science, me-
chanics, and medicine.
We wish to pay our tribute to the memory of
the discoverer of this great fact. To this end let us
examine the testimony, restate the facts, and again
judge their relative value.
"We can do nothing against the truth." His-
tory makes itself; to record it impartially is a difficult
task.
The Fiftieth Anniversary
Great discoveries and great events do not burst
forth with Promethean suddenness or completeness,
but are the result of long periods of incubation and
growth, and oftentimes await many long years of ex-
pectancy, hope, and even despair. Such was the
case with the great fact of practical anesthesia.
The ancient nations waited for it, hunted for it, but
died without the sight. Modern nations continued
the longing search, but they caught only a glimpse
of the coming day to reward them, until the middle
of the present century, when Horace Wells discov-
ered, demonstrated, and proclaimed the great bless-
ing, "which stopped pain, robbed the knife of its ter-
rors," and made glad the heart of every sympathizer
with suffering.
Insensibility to surgical operations was occasion-
ally induced many centuries ago. Homer mentions
the anesthetic effect of nepenthe, and refers to the
inhalation of a vapor of hemp. Dioscorides and
Pliny record the use of mandragora. Apuleius, A.D.
125, said: "If a man has to have a limb mutilated,
sawn, or burnt, he may take an ounce of mandragora
wine, and whilst he sleeps the member may be cut off
without pain or sense." In the third century
Hoatho, a Chinese, gave his patients a preparation
of hemp which rendered them insensible to pain.
Theodoric in the thirteenth century gave directions
for preparing the spongia somnifera for inhalation
before operations.
Ether was known as early as the thirteenth cen-
tury, and described by Cordus in the sixteenth cen-
Discovery of Anesthesia.
tury, and the name ether was given it by Frobenius
in 1730. In 1828 Geradin read a paper before the
Academy of Medicine of Paris describing surgical
anesthesia produced by inhaling gases.
In 1800 Sir Humphry Davy made his remarkable
statement that "As nitrous oxid gas appears capable
of destroying physical pain, it may probably be used
to advantage during surgical operations in which
no great effusion of blood takes place." The pity
is that this suggestion should have lain buried under
the forgetfulness of forty-five years and borne no
fruit.
None of the agents used by the ancients proved
practical or safe; consequently at the beginning of
the present century practical anesthesia remained
undiscovered.
Two agents are inseparably connected with the
discovery of modern anesthesia, protoxid of nitrogen
and sulfuric ether. Protoxid of nitrogen was dis-
covered by Priestley, described by Davy, and prac-
tically applied by Horace Wells in 1844.
Sulfuric ether was discovered in the thirteenth
century, described in the sixteenth, named in the
eighteenth, and practically applied to produce surgi-
cal anesthesia in the nineteenth century, when, in
1846, its use was made known to the world by Mor-
ton at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Since
1847 chloroform has been successfully used as an an-
esthetic, but it played no part in the discovery of an-
esthesia. Chloroform was discovered in 1831. Sir
J. Y. Simpson discovered its anesthetic power,
November 4, 1847.
13
The Fiftieth Anniversary
Ever since 1818 the physiological action of gas
and ether has been well understood. In 1840 it was
well known that both would produce intoxication,
and that both would lessen the severity of pain, hav-
ing been repeatedly inhaled for amusement and for
relief of suffering. So it was but a step from this to
the attainment of surgical success; but a step no one
had dare take and maintain until Wells ventured and
bridged the chasm, and the fierce extremity of suf-
fering was steeped in waters of forgetfulness, and the
deepest furrow in the knotted brow of agony was
smoothed forever. The history of this step is sim-
ple but dramatic. It is known that Wells possessed
the current knowledge concerning the properties
and physiological effects of both gas and ether,
though probably ignorant of Davy's suggestion.
For four years he had believed it possible, by the in-
halation of certain gases, especially laughing gas, to
produce a degree of intoxication that would obtund
the pain of surgical operations.
At this time G. Q. Colton was delivering
throughout the country popular lectures on chemis-
try, administering at each lecture the laughing gas
for the amusement of the audience. December 10,
1844, he lectured in Hartford, Conn. In the audi-
ence was Horace Wells, with his mind still occupied
with the possibilities of the gas. He inhaled the gas
himself; he watched its effects on others. He said
to a Mr. Clark: "I believe a man may, by taking that
gas, have a tooth extracted or a limb amputated,
and not feel any pain." Among those present was
14
Discovery of Anesthesia.
Mr. S. A. Cooley, a druggist. Mr. Cooley inhaled
the gas, and while under its influence ran against
and overthrew some benches in the hall, thereby pro-
ducing several severe abrasions upon his knees.
When he recovered consciousness he found the skin
on his limbs badly bruised and broken, and yet he
had not suffered at all, and did not know of the in-
jury he had inflicted upon himself until the specta-
tors had called his attention to it. Dr. Wells ob-
served this effect of the gas, and at once determined
to try it on his own person. A troublesome wis-
dom-tooth offered the necessary object for the ex-
periment. A number of those present, including
Colton, Wells, and Cooley, met on the morning of
the nth of December at Dr. Wells's office. What
occurred there is thus described by Dr. Riggs, whose
office adjoined Dr. Wells's, and who was called in to
extract the tooth:
"Dr. Wells a few minutes after I went in, and
after conversation, took a seat in the operating chair.
I examined the tooth to be extracted with a glass,
as I generally do. Wells took the bag of gas from
Mr. Colton and sat with it in his lap, and I stood
by his side; Wells then breathed the gas until he was
affected by it; his head dropped back. I put my
hand to his chin, he opened his mouth, and I ex-
tracted the tooth; his mouth remained open some
time. I held the tooth in the instrument that the
others might see it, they standing partially back of
the screen and looking on.
"Dr. Wells soon recovered from the influence of
*5
The Fiftieth Anniversary
the gas so as to know what he was about, discharged
the blood from his mouth, swung his hand, and said:
'A new era in tooth-pulling; it did not hurt me at all.'
"We were all much elated, and conversed about
it for an hour after. We were so elated by the suc-
cess of this experiment that we immediately turned
our attention to the extraction of teeth by means of
this agent, and continued to devote ourselves to this
subject for several weeks, almost exclusively. Dr.
Wells continued to use the gas freely in the practice
of dentistry during the remainder of that year and
the year following, and at all times when he was in
the practice of his profession."
Then was the deduction and suggestion made by
Humphry Davy in 1800 verified by Horace Wells;
the prophecy fulfilled; and practical anesthesia be-
came a discovered and demonstrated reality.
This event was the source of the world's knowl-
edge of anesthesia; all previous efforts had come to
naught; but the echoes of Wells's success were soon
heard around the world.
In the beginning of the present century science
could not interpret the signs, and Davy's conception
and prophecy of the possibilities of nitrous oxid fell
upon deaf ears, and all the knowledge concerning the
power of ether to produce insensibility to pain ap-
pealed to sterile minds. And even in 1844 the pro-
fessional ear was not quite attuned to the sound, and
could not recognize in the extraction of Dr. Wells's
tooth, on the nth of December, 1844, the key to the
solution of the whole problem of anesthesia. Even
16
Discovery of Anesthesia.
those most interested, most acute, and most observ-
ant, could not in Wells's nearly successful operation
before the class of the Harvard Medical school in
January, 1845, apprehend the great fact that surgical
anesthesia was a possibility. Nor indeed could they
perceive it until it was forced upon their attention
by the courage of a Morton.
If, when Wells extracted the student's tooth, the
surgeons of the Massachusetts General Hospital had
possessed a little more of that keen perceptive power
"of feeling, than of seeing; of the heart than of the
ear," they would have apprehended the possibilities,
and the discovery of surgical anesthesia would then
have been acknowledged, the processes perfected,
and no disputing claims would have arisen.
When we realize how hard it is to compel atten-
tion to a new idea, how slow is the accumulation of
new facts, how gradual the growth of perception,
and how great the magnitude of this subject, we
cease to wonder at the slowness with which the sig-
nificance of this event was appreciated.
In future years whenever and wherever the dis-
covery of anesthesia is intelligently discussed with
knowledge of the subject, the name of Horace Wells
will be spoken with honor and gratitude, and with
his name will be associated the names of John M.
Riggs, G. Q. Colton, E. E. Marcy, W. T. G. Morton,
James Y. Simpson, Charles "F. Jackson, Oliver Wen-
dell Holmes, and Henry J. Bigelow.
Of these, Dr. Marcy and G. Q. Colton still sur-
vive to bear witness to their part in the drama and
enjoy their honors.
17
The Fiftieth Anniversary
G. Q. Colton administered the nitrous oxid gas
to Dr. Wells for the first operation under anesthesia,
and reintroduced its use in 1863.
Dr. Riggs performed the first operation, extract-
ing Wells's molar tooth.
Dr. Marcy suggested to Dr. Wells the use of
ether instead of gas, and verified its action.
Dr. Morton made the first public application of
ether for surgical anesthesia.
Dr. Jackson claimed to have suggested all that
Morton knew about the effects of ether, and the use
of it for anesthetic purposes.
Dr. Simpson made himself and British surgery-
famous by the discovery of the anesthetic power of
chloroform.
Dr. Holmes suggested for this condition of in-
sensibility the name, the use of which has become
universal. He wrote to Dr. Morton as follows:
"Everybody wants to have a hand in a great in-
vention. All I will do is to give you a hint or two as
to names, or the name, to be applied to the state
produced and to the agent.
"The state should, I think, be called anesthesia.
This signifies insensibility, more particularly (as used
by Linnseus and Cullen) to objects of touch. The
adjective will be anesthetic. Thus we might say,
the 'state of anesthesia,' or the 'anesthetic state.'
The means employed would be properly called the
'anti-esthetic agent.' Perhaps it might be allowable
to say 'anesthetic agent'; but this admits of ques-
tion.
18
Discovery of Anesthesia.
"The words anti-neuric, aneuric, neuro-leptic,
seem too anatomical; whereas the change is a physio-
logical one. I throw these out for consideration.
"I would have a name pretty soon, and consult
some accomplished scholar, such as President Ever-
ett, or Dr. Bigelow, Sr., before fixing upon the
terms which will be repeated by the tongues of every
civilized race of mankind. You could mention these
words which I suggest for their consideration; but
there may be others more appropriate and agreeable.
. "Yours respectfully,
"O. W. Holmes."
Dr. Crawford W. Long, of Georgia, used ether
for anesthetic purposes three times during 1842-43,
and now appears as a claimant to the discovery.
But Dr. Long's connection with the subject was not
mentioned until many years after the fact. He did
not write a word in regard to his discovery, nor did
any notice of it appear in print until 1849, fi ye years
after Wells's discovery, and seven years after he him-
self had administered the ether. How could any one,
after knowing of such a boon to suffering humanity,
resist for even a day the impulse to "fly on joyful
wings, cleaving the sky," to proclaim the coming
of this great consolation to the afflicted?
Dr. R. M. Hodges wrote of this claim: "Not a
physician or surgeon ever used ether because Long
had used it; nor did mankind learn from him that
anesthetic inhalation for surgical purposes was pos-
sible. His claim was made after the fact, and rest-
ing on no better foundation than those claims simi-
19
The Fiftieth Anniversary
larly made by other aspirants for distinction; a class
so numerous as to have been named by the London
Lancet, 'The class of jump-up-behinders.' "
Dr. H. J. Bigelow's connection with the ether
discovery was important, perhaps vital to the suc-
cess of anesthesia at that time, as in more than one
instance he prevented fatal results from overanes-
thesia. Although but twenty-eight years of age,
and junior surgeon at the hospital, less than one year
in office, he was the one whose penetration, execu-
tive ability, sagacious and active qualities of mind
and body, made him realize that the event of a life-
time was taking place. He made a clinical study of
the subject; he made most unremitting exertion to
prove the safety of ether; he practically supervised
etherization during the first year of its use. He an-
nounced to the world the discovery of this use of
ether in a paper read at the American Academy of
Medicine, November 3, 1846. He verified the an-
esthetic power of nitrous oxid in 1848. These facts
have identified Dr. Bigelow with the whole subject
of anesthesia. Had he been present on the occa-
sion of Wells's first experiment, it is not unlikely the
course of events would have been materially differ-
ent.
Dr. Edward Warren wrote: "To him next to the
discoverer himself are the public and the world in-
debted for the blessings of so early receiving this
great discovery."
The many volumes printed during the exciting
years from 1846-63 furnish a great number of
Discovery of Anesthesia.
statements, opinions, and facts pertaining to this
discovery, most of which have ceased to be of any
value.
Napoleon is said to have often left his letters lie
unopened for several days, giving as a reason that in
that time events would answer a greater part of
them. So we find that the larger part of the state-
ments, opinions, and arguments in regard to this
subject have been answered by subsequent events.
Let us contrast a few of the statements made at
that time with the facts as now known.
Then some denied that nitrous oxid was an an-
esthetic; to-day it is known as one of the most effi-
cient.
In 1844 Wells claimed that the gas was safer
than ether; others denied its safety; to-day it stands
proven the safest and most pleasant anesthetic agent
known to the world.
It was then claimed to be impracticable to use it ;
now its successful administration annually to more
patients than all other agents combined proves its
practicability.
It was then claimed to be ineffectual for pro-
longed operations; to-day it is proven equal to con-
tinuing the anesthetic state indefinitely.
Then it was contended by skillful surgeons and
eminent divines "that pain was a natural protection,
a necessary stimulant to the reparative process, and
a Providential dispensation, and that the prevention
of it was defying the Almighty"; now it amounts to
inhumanity and malpractice to presume to do any
severe operation without it.
21
The Fiftieth Anniversary
Prof. Charles D. Meigs, of the Jefferson Medical
College of Philadelphia, as late as 1856, wrote of the"
"doubtful nature of any processes that the physician
sets up to contravene the operation of those natural
and physiological forces that the Divinity has or-
dained us to enjoy or suffer."
And a clergyman wrote to a medical friend as fol-
lows: "Anesthesia is a decoy of Satan apparently of-
fering itself to bless women; but in the end it will
harden society, and rob God of the deep, earnest
cries which arise in time of trouble for help."
The following facts seem to be established by in-
disputable sworn testimony, and I believe are ad-
mitted by all the friends of truth:
In 1840 Dr. Wells expressed his faith in the an-
esthetic power of nitrous oxid.
December 11, 1844, Wells inhaled nitrous oxid
and had a tooth extracted painlessly, which event
immediately became known throughout the city of
Hartford and vicinity.
Forthwith Wells made a pilgrimage to Boston to
proclaim and demonstrate his discovery; he called on
Morton and made known to him this event.
Through Morton's intercession an invitation was
given Dr. Wells by Dr. J. C. Warren to speak to the
class of the Harvard Medical School, and describe
his discovery. A little later he gave the nitrous
oxid to a patient and extracted a tooth for him be-
fore the same class with incomplete success. The
patient cried out as with pain, but when again con-
scious declared he had not been hurt.
22
Discovery of Anesthesia.
A month later Dr. Marcy suggested to Wells the
use of sulfuric ether for this same purpose, and veri-
fied its effects by anesthetizing a patient with this
agent, and removing a good-sized tumor from his
head without causing pain. They both discarded
ether, as its odor was unpleasant, and because they
considered it less safe than laughing gas.
Early in 1845 Dr. Wells administered sulfuric
ether to a patient (Gaylord Wells) and extracted a
tooth painlessly.
In 1 841 Dr. Morton was a pupil of Dr. Wells. In
1842 they were in business together for a time in
Boston.
In July, 1845, Morton called on Wells in Hart-
ford and talked with him and Dr. Riggs about the
gas, and asked them for a supply.
Dr. Wells referred him to Dr. Jackson for in-
formation as to the manufacture of it.
Drs. Wells, Riggs, and others continued the use
of gas until November 6, 1846, when chloroform and
ether were substituted, and gas remained unused
until 1863.
The use of nitrous oxid for anesthetic purposes
was recorded in the Boston Medical and Surgical Jour-
nal of June 18, 1845, as follows: "The nitrous oxid
gas has been used in quite a number of cases by our
(Hartford) dentists during the extraction of teeth,
and has been proven by its excitement perfectly to
destroy pain."
Dr. Wm. T. G. Morton performed his first suc-
cessful operation with ether September 30, 1846;
23
The Fiftieth Anniversary
and on October 16, following, he administered ether
to a patient at the Massachusetts General Hospital,
and on the 17th to a second case.
About October 20, 1846, Dr. Jackson claimed
compensation from Morton for professional advice,
and charged five hundred dollars.
October 27, 1846, Drs. Morton and Jackson
made oath to a joint discovery of a compound for the
prevention of pain during surgical operations; and
applied for a patent. The patent was granted, and
in 1863 was declared void, as such a discovery was
not patentable.
November 9, 1846, Dr. Morton declared it was
simply sulfuric ether, not a compound as claimed in
his application for a patent.
In the autumn of 1847 Drs. Jackson and Morton
each claimed to be the sole independent discoverer
of anesthesia, and in nowise indebted to the other,
and so contended to the end.
In 1847 the Paris Academy of Medicine, upon ex
parte evidence, declared Morton and Jackson the
discoverers of anesthesia.
In January, 1848, the Parisian Medical Society,
after a full hearing of evidence from both parties,
voted that "To Horace Wells, of Hartford, Conn.,
U. S. A., is due all the honor of having discovered
and sucessfully applied the uses of vapors or gases
whereby surgical operations could be performed
without pain," and elected him an honorary mem-
ber of the society.
In 1846 the surgeons of the Massachusetts Gen-
24
Discovery of Anesthesia.
eral Hospital gave Morton the credit of being the
discoverer of modern anesthesia. In 1853, five years
after Wells's death, Dr. C. H. Haywood, one of the
surgeons present at the first operation, gave the fol-
lowing unqualified credit to Wells for his share in it.
He closes a letter to Hon. Truman Smith with these
words:
"It was no Minerva born full armored. More-
over, in analyzing the nature of the discovery, we
can detect several elements which were successfully
brought to light. Thus we observe in the first
period an indefinite search after some method of pro-
ducing insensibility to pain. Then came a second
period where great advance was made, beyond all
dispute, due to Horace Wells.
"This was the first important step in the history
of anesthesia.
"The question of priority may be easily settled.
It is satisfactorily proved that Dr. Wells's experi-
ments had established the above-mentioned points
as early as 1844, though they had not determined
either the best agent, or perfected the method of ad-
ministration in detail.
"In the third period the anesthetic properties of
certain substances were discovered. First nitrous
oxid was tried; then sulfuric ether; then chloroform;
then chloric ether. These discoveries were all made
by different individuals.
"Now for which of these agents and to which dis-
coverer shall remuneration be granted? To each
and for all I say: to Morton for sulfuric ether, to Dr.
25
The Fiftieth Anniversary
Simpson for chloroform, to Dr. J. C. Warren for
chloric ether; but before all, let full and ample justice
be done to that noble genius which first conceived
the grand idea which has been the basis of all the
experiments, and father of all the discoveries. To
the spirit of Horace Wells belongs the honor of hav-
ing given to suffering humanity the greatest boon it
ever received from science."
"Thus do facts maintain the majesty of truth."
Argument would only weaken the evident conclu-
sion.
Considering that Wells was timid, retiring, and
only twenty-seven years old when he announced his
discovery, who can wonder that he should return
from Boston disheartened; and later, when still suf-
fering from disappointment and the ill effects of his
own sacrificing experiments, meet a sad and tragic
death?
It is remarkable, too, that his rival claimants
should both meet an almost equally tragic fate: Mor-
ton dying of apoplexy while out riding, and Jackson
spending the last seven years of his life in an asylum
for the insane.
Thus did "the shears of Fate cut the tent-ropes
of their lives."
Upon the memory of Horace Wells there re-
mains no blot or stain; against him no charge of
selfishness, dishonesty, deceit, or unfairness was ever
made; he lived and died honored and respected by
the people among whom he dwelt. We best quote
the words of one who knew him intimately:
26
Discovery of Anesthesia.
"He had a mind of uncommon restlessness, ac-
tivity, and intelligence. He early manifested great
inventive genius and mechanical talent. He was of
medium height, with a head of remarkable size, com-
plexion light, compactly built, of pleasing counte-
nance and address, and of fine personal appearance.
As a citizen he was a man of great purity of character
and of generous impulses, honoring religion by his
walk and conversation; as a son he was kind and
dutiful, and in his family relations an example of
kindness and affection. In all these respects he was
without spot."
Such a character as this sought only the legiti-
mate emoluments of his calling, and was always
ready to benefit his profession and mankind. No
sacrifice was too great for him to make. Very ap-
preciative of words of encouragement, he was also
very sensitive to criticism; hence it is not strange
that such a spirit, so young, should quail before the
derision of professors and jeers of students. Honest
himself, he could not think others dishonest; just,
he could not brook injustice. Being denied what
he knew were his just claims, his soul was cut to the
quick, and a dark veil was drawn over what promised
a brilliant and useful life.
We lay our wreath upon his tomb; would that we
to-day might with it crown his head. Coming gen-
erations will recognize in him the martyr and the
world's benefactor, and on every monument which in
the future may be raised to commemorate this great
event will be inscribed: "Horace Wells — the Discov-
erer of Modern Anesthesia."
27
The Fiftieth Anniversary
After the reading of the paper by Professor Fille-
brown, the chairman said, continuing: I am sure,
gentlemen, that you will agree with me that if we
had no further contribution to-day on this occasion,
that the contribution that we have listened to would
have justified us in our presence this afternoon.
But whether the next gentleman will take you to the
sick chamber, or whether he will take you to the
surgical table, or the operating chair, or I know not
what, but I know from his great reputation and his
learning that he will do justice to the occasion in the
course he may pursue in further demonstrating the
great benefits of anesthesia to mankind. I have now
the honor of introducing to you Prof. James. E.
Garretson.
Before proceeding with his paper, Professor Gar-
retson, in noticing a gentleman in the audience, said
that he saw one present whose shoe latchets he was
not worthy to unloose, — Dr. G. Q. Colton, — whom
he requested to come to the platform.
Dr. Colton upon this invitation ascended the
platform and took his seat with those occupying
that position.
Professor Garretson stated that he understood
the son of Horace Wells was in the room, and asked
him to come to the platform. To this there was no
response.
Professor Garretson then exhibited his paper in
full, saying he would not read it all, as it would be
printed; that he would read an abstract which he had
prepared.
28
Discovery of Anesthesia.
I come to assure this great audience that I stand
in its presence overwhelmed by the contrast that
separates subject and speaker; and that I find words
in deference only to the circumstances of the oc-
casion which brings us together.
It is no profane comparison to suggest that
naught but a sense of profanation could associate
with a priest who should add words to the lifting of
the Host. Does not a priest, in performance of this
act, set a seal upon his lips? Does he not wrap in
vestment that has been blessed the hands which are
to touch the sacred symbol?
The profundity of the meaning, not to say the
holiness, of what seems to me among the greatest
of God's gifts to men, anesthesia, affects me in its
contemplation, as I assume the priest to be affected
as he approaches the Host. The full feeling is, "Be
still!"
Silence! and its golden meaning!
Surely, — forcing ourselves to talk and listen, —
the gold of anesthesia is silence; silence in place of
agonizing, heartrending screams. Silence in place
of cries from the pitying but helpless bystanders.
Silence in presence of torture shorn of its terror.
On an occasion, now many years back, I was
wandering through the lanes and alleys of Sleepy
Hollow Cemetery in the town of Concord, Massa-
chusetts, when, being led up a hill, I stepped over a
low, much-abused hedge of arbor vitse, discovering
a plain low-set stone having upon its face a single
word. When at the foot of the hill, I had found my-
29
The Fiftieth Anniversary
self surrounded by what would not inaptly bear de-
scription as splendid marbles. Upon these were
deeply cut many names and the records of many
virtues. Neither names nor virtues had, however,
significance to me. No chord was struck, no re-
sponse elicited. The word upon the low-set stone of
the hilltop was Hawthorne. The ring of a bell is its
metal. The name of a man is his work. Men who
have done something: either as cause or instrument!
What reverberations ring out as such names are en-
countered! Somewhere, everywhere, is a sound.
The lives of great men; the memories of the lives of
great men, — left to remind us.
Horace Wells! The name does not, nor will not,
still. It rings, and rings, and rings, in distinctness,
albeit accordant and discordant sounds are every-
where about it.
The task of reviewing the history of anesthesia
was given to the worthy colleague who has preceded
me. I am glad of it. Standing, as I feel myself to-
day, overshadowed by flames and memories; mem-
ories of blighted lives, — of mental wreckage, — of dis-
couragements ending in suicides; what but admira-
tion of the sacrifices made; what but desire to do
homage; what else than these should or could fill a
human heart on such an occasion. Here Caesar can
be praised, and Rome too.
A new good is an old gift, — not new in ages past,
only because channel was lacking. Electricity before
chaos. An Edison the production of a nineteenth
century. Euphrates, Tigris; both water Mesopo-
30
Discovery of Anesthesia.
tamia; both, alike, are the Persian Gulf. Not Ar-
menia is the source; a common under-spring is the
well constituting the divine afflatus.
My perceptions view Horace Wells as Euphrates
and Tigris are viewed; he, and these, and all phe-
nomena, not as things in themselves, but as things in
other things.
Whether or not this man was a meditative phi-
losopher to be found oftenest in haunts apart from
men, or whether or not he was simply a vessel capa-
ble of holding, but never trying to fill itself, I am
alike without knowledge as without desire to know.
He was filled, however. The river of Lethe found
in him a channel. Everywhere over the land flows
the stream Nepenthe. He is Nepenthe.
To change a metaphor: Is invention aught but
filling a Form? Is this not a matter made plain by
Plato two thousand years back? Are not forms
eternal? Forms of things seen yesterday, to-day,
and to be seen forever. Forms not yet seen. Is
invention else than seeing a form and bringing it
down from the sky to the uses of men? Material-
izing it, properly speaking. How, as I grow old,
do I grow impressed with this: The maker of forms,
the all, the filler of forms, simple instrument.
It is not even slight departure from the imme-
diate subject of the occasion to make further refer-
ence to this matter of forms, for it is not otherwise,
according to my conception, that Horace Wells is
to be either understood, appreciated, or called the
discoverer of anesthesia.
31
The Fiftieth Anniversary
Was it truthfully Priestley to whom nitrous oxid
owes its discovery? It assuredly was not to Horace
Wells. Was, or was not, anything known of this gas
before the days of our own Declaration of Independ-
ence? Or is it rather to be put thus: nitrous oxid
is phenomenon deductively exposing itself to the
chemist out of the droppings of camels upon desert
sands; Ammon and Ammonia go back to Lybia.
No one has been, or is, greater than Plato.
What the dungburners did, or what Priestley has
done, is not credited by him as science, but simply
as dealings had with phenomena. Science, he says,
fritters itself where its aim is otherwise than with
the getting of knowledge of Noumenon.
Things unlike are not necessarily dissimilar.
The things that lie within things are multitudinous.
Who knows, even yet, what nitrous oxid is? Who
knows even what water is? In a word, who knows
what, or how much, anything is? Nobody.
But the scientist is the evolutionist. Possessing
himself of means he analyzes. Analysis is one, or
closely one, with deduction. Science has no
thought, or word, or action, outside of matter.
But forms, the true objects of science, as af-
firmed by Plato, constitute the invisible. The music
of a musician is not his notes, the poet's inspirations
are not grammar. Reality, or at least nearer ap-
proach to reality, is back of these. Notes are to be
seen by anybody having eyes, and words are to be
heard by anybody having ears. But what as to
forms, or ghosts, as these are back of notes and
32
Discovery of Anesthesia.
words? What as to the seers of these? No forms
being back of notes and words, there can be no notes
and words in front of forms.
Was not the ghost of anesthesia with the camel-
droppings? Was it not with the dudain, the devil's
apple, of the Arab? Has it not been with alcohol
since men distilled and knew this agent? Is it not
with the poppy through all the ages that fields have
been made red by this plant ?
In 1 540 the oleum vitreoli duke was first given to
the uses of men by Valerius Cordus. He had not
the name, either, for it, but his oil was, at its least,
the basis of the ether of Frobensius, and the ether
of to-day. Guthrie, Liebig, and Soubeiran simul-
taneously discovered chloroform in 1831. Did
Cordus, in 1540, see or tell anything about a ghost
of anesthesia, as this lay in his sweet oil of vitriol?
With chloroform filling the bottles of druggists, in
1 83 1, was anybody to be found who had been in-
troduced through its use to the wonderland of
Euthanasia?
Let here the idea be repeated of nobody knowing
what anything is. Cadmus, beyond all men of his
times, saw letters. A Shakespeare, beyond all men
of his times, saw use lying with letters. How many
are the expressions lying with letters not yet seen
by anybody? Forecast the unwritten poetry!
Here is culmination; and here is the place of
Horace Wells in history. Horace Wells saw in a
room in Hartford what had never before been seen
by mortal man. He saw anesthesia. It was ages
33
The Fiftieth Anniversary
before he was born that ether was materialized, and
it was before he was born that nitrous oxid was
formulated, and it was when he was in no way think-
ing about such things that chloroform was brought
forth. The seer saw anesthesia. The sight lay, as
I understand, with a hurt hand of which no com-
plaint was made. Others, many others, saw the
bloody hand. In a distant state, about the same
time, I myself saw the hurt hand, but none, not one
of the many others, saw anesthesia. I think it is
not to be denied that some saw a filmy halo that
meant anesthesia. There was a something, but
what the something was the seers did not make out,
and what was seen was seen only to be forgotten.
Truly, Sir Humphry Davy is to be credited with a
feeling of the elysium. Ego was differentiated for
him by nitrous oxid from environment; but, while
he felt, it was separability that was felt, not anes-
thesia. His expression on coming from under the
influence of nitrous oxid is familiar: "Nothing exists
but thought."
Anesthesia, the thing being truly understood, is
barrier between Matter, which does not feel, and
Ego, which is percipient. It is not Matter that sees,
hears, touches, or tastes. Does the matter tem-
porarily composing the cadaver of a dissecting room
see, hear, touch, or taste? Percipience is away from
it; there is neither seeing, hearing, touching, nor
tasting by a cadaver. A flute separated from its
player is wood, having no sing in it.
I am not to credit Horace Wells with sight of
34
Discovery of Anesthesia.
separability. The "Me, and the not Me," is not
likely to have been seen even by his internal eye.
His seership lay with a direction that people delight
to call practical. Of many things, hundreds, thou-
sands perhaps, lying with nitrous oxid, he saw one.
But what a one! Here begins his glory. Here is
to continue his glory. Here, so long as pain is es-
teemed hurtful, and absence of it pleasurable, will
the name of Horace Wells be upon the lips of men.
Parallels recall obligations and glory due others.
Apples have fallen since first apples began to grow
and ripen. Kettles, in which water was being boiled
for the evening repast, have opened their iron lips
and tried for numberless centuries to say what they
had to tell about locomotion. Over the earth and
across the face of the heavens electricity has sought
vainly, until latterly, for a seer. The sun, with his
rays full of perfect pictures, brought as free gifts to
man, could find no taker.
In the year 1665 a seer, sitting under a tree at
Woolsthorpe, found himself able to hear fairly well
what a falling apple had to tell about the moon stay-
ing where it belongs. Heron of Alexandria, hold-
ing his egotistic ear to the spout of a kettle, heard a
story of steam, and wrote it down in the shape of his
seolipile, a so-called invention. Papin saw the cylin-
der. Fulton saw the steamboat. Stephenson was,
perhaps, the first witness of a train of cars drawn by
a locomotive. Thales of Miletus got a story of
electricity from a piece of amber. Daguerre, not,
however, until the age of the world A.D. 1839, was
35
The Fiftieth Anniversary
able to take what the sun had to give of pictures.
Mozart, beginning with the use of common sense,
and from this passing to the advantages lying with
educated sense, dropped at the last both these and
put down in form notes what alone the flowers
whispered to him, — having found out that education
is not alone the teller of things that are to be heard.
Not unnecessarily to detain; was anesthesia, as
anesthesia, known to surgery before 1844 as it be-
came known in that year and since remains known?
Not nitrous oxid, not ether, not chloroform, not
rapid breathing, but anesthesia.
Who was the man of that year? Horace Wells.
This, it seems to me, settles the question.
Let, however, all deserved honor and glory as-
sociate with the names of workers and experiment-
ers, as these have enlarged application of the in-
spiration of the Hartford seer. Ether! Chloro-
form! What would surgery do without them?
How could the world do without them? How did
the world do without them?
Here is other culmination. It is not necessary,
in this presence, to enlarge beyond a very few sen-
tences on the benefits of anesthesia to humanity.
Are not all here assembled doing, and experiencing,
each after the manner of his work, what I did and
experienced only yesterday. Upon the operating
table of a hospital lay sleeping sweetly and quietly as
ever baby slept a member of our fraternity. In
place of an ordinary neck was a tumor that reached
from chin to sternum, and from ear to ear. Wher-
36
Discovery of Anesthesia.
ever, as it proved, reaching fingers could reach, pro-
longations of this mass extended themselves. Sali-
vary glands, trachea, carotid arteries, jugular veins,
pneumogastric nerves, all were more or less em-
braced and wrapped about. Yet, while so horrible
a dissection as was required to remove the mass
went on, sleeping and dreaming quietly continued,
nor was any consciousness had by our brother of his
terrible experience until an hour later he awakened
snugly tucked away in one of the most comfortable
beds, the tender hand of the nurse wiping away the
cold sweat drops standing threateningly upon his
forehead.
Consider, in contrast, a picture familiar before
the day of Wells's inspiration. A mother, her heart
welling out in tears, limbs trembling so as scarcely
to afford her support, helpless misery marking her
countenance, despair striking at her with its thongs
of flame, follows into a hospital operating amphi-
theater a nurse who carries her firstborn, which is
being brought to the table. Alas! helpless indeed is
the mother. How more than gladly, how a thou-
sand times more than gladly, would she lie down in
place of the child. Cries of mother and child moan
through the hospital, and the least sensitive feels
his cheek pale. The crucial moment has come.
The child is placed and held by force upon the table.
The mother is torn away. For a single moment
eyes of mother and child have met in parting. A
loud, frightened, despairing cry from the child rings
from ceiling to floor of the room. The mother
37
The Fiftieth Anniversary
drops in a heap and is carried out a raving lunatic.
She raves about and curses God as being without
pity or mercy.
Let a picture of to-day have relation with that
other one of the past. One which extended, alas,
from the days of the first surgical performance to
the year of grace eighteen hundred and forty-four.
A mother brings to a hospital a child whose de-
formity requires the knife for its correction. Con-
scious of the power of anesthesia, the surgeon talks
to the parent, while all the while the little patient,
pleased and inveigled by the sweet smell of chloro-
form, is itself anesthetizing itself. The cutting is
done. The child has a dream of roses and gardens
and wide fields. The mother has placed in her arms
her restored offspring. She has no tears, no words,
her contact has been alone with beneficence. She is
overwhelmed by the mystery met and passed. She
says, "Our Father which art in heaven." She says
and feels there is a God of pity and mercy.
Look at the name of the maker of these pictures
of the new time! It reads, — Horace Wells!
To what extent anesthesia has cultivated sensi-
bility, I leave every surgeon to judge. Who, if sud-
denly transplanted into the olden times, being pos-
sessed of his present knowledge of anesthesia, could
handle a knife without cutting everywhere else than
where it would be desirable to cut, otherwise dying
shortly out of sympathy for his patients. Could he
say: "Merciful Father which art in heaven" in place
of thinking "Pitiless devil who is in hell"? Alas!
38
Discovery of Anesthesia.
how near to hopeless atheism may ignorance bring
a man. Hail! that knowledge shows God and
Father everywhere.
Hail to all poets, to the music hearers, to the
seers of forms of every kind! Let statues be made
for such in the squares! Let tablets of enduring
brass mark their working places ! Let us place and
hold them with the immortals!
Hail to him who has proved to be, perhaps, the
greatest of the seers, — Horace Wells!
Dr. L. D. Shepard, of Boston: Mr. President, to
crystallize the sentiment of this large gathering of
professional men into a formal expression of opinion,
the Executive Committee having this celebration in
charge has passed a resolution and asked me to
present it:
"Resolved, That we re-affirm and emphasize our belief that
the observation of Horace Wells was essentially a discovery
original with him. We do not claim that his was the first dis-
covery of the same fact, but accord priority in this to Sir Hum-
phry Davy, and with respect to the honors due to each, we call
attention to the historical fact that it was from the discovery by
Horace Wells, of Hartford, United States of America, that the
direct benefits to humanity were achieved."
Moved and seconded that resolution be adopted.
Motion prevailed.
Dr. Huey: I have been asked by the Executive
Committee to request that a committee be ap-
pointed with instructions to erect a permanent
memorial to Dr. Horace Wells in Washington, D. C.
The President: Will the gentleman who made
39
The Fiftieth Anniversary
the motion suggest the member he will have upon
the committee?
Dr. Huey: I think it had better be left to the
chair. I believe it is the understanding that the
chairman shall appoint a committee to take the
matter in hand, the members of which shall be mem-
bers in good standing of the American Dental Asso-
ciation.
Motion seconded and carried.
The President: I will furnish Dr. J. D. Thomas
the names of the committee to act under that mo-
tion.
ADDRESS BY DR. G. O. COLTON, OF
NEW YORK.
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I can truly say of
myself as Antony did at the funeral of Caesar:
"I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man,
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on;
I tell you that, which you yourselves do know."
Now, I suppose in the course of five or eight min-
utes I can give you an outline of the discovery of
anesthesia. On the ioth of December, 1844, I
gave an exhibition of the amusing effects of nitrous
oxid gas in the city of Hartford, Conn. I saw my
advertisement yesterday in the Hartford Current,
about one-third of a column. There was a very
large audience present. After I had given a short
40
Discovery of Anesthesia.
lecture on the properties and effects of the gas, I
invited a dozen or fifteen gentlemen to come forward
who might like to inhale it for its amusing effects.
Among the gentlemen who came forward was Dr.
Wells and a young man by the name of Cooley.
Both the gentlemen inhaled the gas, and when
Cooley was under the influence of it he began to
dance and jump around. Of course, you cannot see
well under the influence of gas, and he ran against
some wooden settees, benches, on the stage and
bruised his legs quite badly.
Well, as the effects of the gas passed off, he went
and took his seat next to Dr. Wells. Dr. Wells said
to him: "You must have hurt yourself?" "No,"
said Cooley, but at the same time he began to feel
some pain in his legs, and pulling up his pantaloons
was astonished to find his legs all bloody. He said:
"Why, I didn't know I ran against the bench. I
didn't feel a particle of pain until the effects of the
gas passed off."
Well, after the exhibition, while the audience was
going out, Dr. Wells came to me and said: "Why
can't a man have a tooth extracted when under the
influence of the gas and not feel it?" I said I did
not know. The thought had never entered my
head. "Well," said he, "I believe it can be done."
He said, "I am going to try it on myself. I have
a decayed molar and I would like to have it out,
and if you will bring a bag of gas to my office to-
morrow I will try it on myself." So the next day I
went to his office with a bag of gas, and he sent out
41
The Fiftieth Anniversary
and got Dr. Riggs, a neighboring dentist, to come
in. I administered the gas to Dr. Wells and Dr.
Riggs extracted the tooth. On recovering and
finding his tooth out, Dr. Wells slapped his hand
upon his knee and exclaimed very excitedly: "It
is the greatest discovery ever made. I didn't
feel it as much as the prick of a pin." That
was the first tooth ever drawn without pain and was
the birth of anesthesia. This operation took place
just fifty years ago yesterday. Dr. Wells wanted
me to instruct him how to make the gas, which I
did. He wanted me to furnish him the apparatus.
"No," I said. I could not do that. I was engaged
ahead and I had to go. I went away. In about
three weeks from that time I saw a paragraph, three
or four lines, that there was a Dr. Wells in Boston
extracting teeth while the patients were under the
influence of nitrous oxid gas, laughing gas. I then
knew how it originated. Dr. Wells went to Boston
to make the discovery known to the world. He
called upon his former pupil in dentistry, Dr. Mor-
ton, and told him what he had done. They all
laughed at him. You have heard his statement
about his appearance before the class at Cambridge
College, which is a fact, and the young man who
had a tooth extracted said he didn't feel the pain
when the tooth was drawn, but the students hissed
him and laughed at him and sneered at him, and
hurt the feelings of Dr. Wells very much. They
said it was a failure. He returned to Hartford dis-
couraged, but resumed his practice and used the gas
42
Discovery of Anesthesia.
constantly. Bishop Brownell and his two daugh-
ters, and about thirty or forty of the most respecta-
ble citizens of Hartford, gave their deposition after-
ward that during the year of 1845 Dr. Wells ex-
tracted two teeth for them, using the gas as an an-
esthetic, without any pain and without any ill effects
from the gas.
At the end of 1845, if I am not mistaken, or the
beginning of 1846, Dr. Wells's health failed and he
went to Europe and presented his claim to the
Academy of Sciences, and the Academy gave him
the honor of an M.D., and he felt very proud of it.
He then went traveling on the Continent. Not be-
ing able to speak the language, of course he could
not use the gas.
Now, during his absence in Europe, Dr. Morton,
his former pupil, went to Dr. Jackson, a chemist, to
learn how to make this gas. He wanted to see
what there was in Wells's pretended discovery. He
broached the subject to Dr. Jackson, who said to
him: "Don't use laughing gas; ether will destroy
pain. Use ether if you want to use anything." He
evidently had no faith in it. Upon leaving Dr.
Jackson's office, Dr. Morton asked him what kind
of stuff ether was, and Dr. Jackson's reply was: "It
is a liquid, and you can buy it in any drug store."
After that Dr. Morton tried it upon a patient, gave
him the ether and took out a single tooth without
any pain. That was on the 30th of December,
1846, almost two years after Wells. It has been
stated, and very correctly, that Morton and Jackson
43
The Fiftieth Anniversary
applied for a patent. Well, the patent was delayed
for some time, and Jackson probably thought the
thing might turn out to be a humbug, and he did
not like to have his name associated with Morton,
so he takes an agreement from Morton that Morton
should pay him ten per cent, of all he made out of
the patent and then assigned his interest in it to
Morton, and wrote to the Commissioner at Wash-
ington requesting him to issue the patent to Mor-
ton. The patent was issued to Morton, but instead
of calling it ether he called it lethea, to mystify the
public. Now, when Wells returned to this country
he was astonished to find that Morton had got a
patent and claimed the honor of the discovery of an-
esthesia, and then a very exciting and violent dis-
cussion commenced between them in a Boston medi-
cal journal. That discussion so worked on the
sensitive nature of Wells that he became deranged
and committed suicide. There is no doubt but
that he was deranged, because he had the reputa-
tion in Hartford of being a very excellent Christian
gentleman. Everybody loved him. That is the
story of the discovery. By the way, Dr. Wells was
the only man up to 1863 who ever used the gas that
I am aware of. After the death of Wells, Dr. Mor-
ton set up the claim that nitrous oxid was not an
anesthetic at all, and that, therefore, he, Morton,
was the discoverer of anesthesia. It was an admis-
sion on his part, really, that in case nitrous oxid was
an anesthetic Wells was the discoverer. When
afterward it was proved, I was giving an ex-
44
Discovery of Anesthesia.
hibition in New Haven, Conn., and I wanted to get
some subjects to inhale the gas, and I invited thirty
or forty gentlemen to a private entertainment.
Among the others who were present was Dr. Smith.
I gave them the history of the discovery of anes-
thesia as I have given it to you, and said: "I can
never get a dentist to try it." Dr. Smith was pres-
ent, and at the close of the entertainment he said:
"I will try it if you will give me the gas." "Why,"
I said: "I would be delighted, as I want to demon-
strate what can be done with it." That was in
June, 1863. I went to his office the next day, and
while I was there an old lady, a very wealthy lady,
came in. She had been trying to have the doctor
give her chloroform, but he would not do it unless
she would have her physician present to take the
responsibility. Well, he introduced me, and I
talked to the lady some little time, and finally she
said: "I will try the gas." So, that afternoon I took
a bag of the gas there and the lady was present. I
administered a pretty strong dose to her, a pretty
large dose, and Dr. Smith took out seven teeth
for her, and when she recovered and found the
teeth were out she said: "Don't go, Doctor, I want
to give you my blessing." "Now," she said, "you
may mention my name to your audience and state
the fact that I have had seven teeth extracted with-
out any pain and without ill effects from the gas."
I made arrangements with Dr. Smith that I would
furnish the gas and he should extract teeth for one
week, and we should divide the profits equally.
45
The Fiftieth Anniversary
Well, it went along, and at the end of the week the
rooms were crowded with people who wanted to get
their teeth out before I went away. We did not
stop at the end of the week, but continued for three
weeks and two days, and during that time we ex-
tracted a little over three thousand teeth. I said to
myself, this is a little better business than lecturing
to empty benches sometimes, and I went to New
York at the suggestion of P. T. Barnum. He said:
"You establish an institution devoted exclusively
to extracting teeth, and call it the Colton Dental
Institute, because your name has been identified
with the gas so long." I did so, and I commenced
on the 15th of July, 1863. On the 4th of February
following I had given it about nine months. I began
to ask my patients to write their names. on a scroll of
paper twenty-one inches wide. On the margin I
left a space to number them, and I have numbered
every patient from that time to this. I have on that
scroll, or had at the time I left New York, 186,500
names. Of all that vast number, I have not had a
single accident from the gas.
Some people express themselves as being much
surprised when I tell them that I am eighty-one
years of age, or shall be in two months from now.
It reminds me of a scene in the play of "As You Like
It." In that play a Duke has been exiled, and he
leaves his property to his two sons. Frederick in-
herits the property, because he is the oldest, and his
father gives him directions to be kind to his brother
Orlando; give him a good education and help him
46
Discovery of Anesthesia.
along in the world. Well, instead of doing that,
Frederick treats him very badly, and finally turns
him out and sends him off without a dollar. Well,
old Adam, who had been a servant in the family
nearly all his life, takes pity on Orlando and goes
with him, and Orlando says: "I have no money;
what can I do? I cannot go on the road and com-
mit a robbery." Well, then old Adam said — and
this is what I wanted to say to you —
"But do not so. I have five hundred crowns,
The thrifty hire I saved under your father,
Which I did store to be my foster-nurse
When service should in my old limbs lie lame
And unregarded age in corners thrown:
Take that, and He that doth the ravens feed,
Yea providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age ! Here is the gold ;
All this I give you. Let me be your servant:
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood,
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly."
Dr. Hopkins: It has been suggested that there
is no time like the present, and I move that the
chairman appoint a treasurer and begin a subscrip-
tion fund immediately. A gentleman near me sug-
gested that he would be glad to subscribe fifty dol-
lars.
Dr. J. D. Thomas, of Philadelphia, was nomi-
nated and elected treasurer of the fund.
Dr. Williams Donnally: I move that the com-
47
The Fiftieth Anniversary
mittee be instructed to take into consideration, in
connection with the purpose of its appointment,
the feasibility of establishing a national museum
and library which shall also be a memorial.
Motion seconded and carried.
Motion to adjourn seconded and carried.
The banquet was held at the Union League, at
which one hundred and forty gentlemen partici-
pated, representing fourteen states.
ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT THE BAN-
QUET HELD AT THE UNION LEAGUE.
After the banquet was finished, Dr. Darby called
the assemblage to order and introduced Hon.
Joseph R. Hawley, United States Senator from
Connecticut.
Mr. Hawley was received with applause, and
said : I am very much obliged to you for your greet-
ing. I have a great affection for the city of Phila-
delphia and its people, and I am glad to be here to-
night.
The Senator recited his having attended school
with Horace Wells, in Hartford, and then pro-
ceeded:
In regard to anesthesia and its discovery, how
many lives have been prolonged by it, and how many
thousands and thousands and thousands of years of
human life have been added by reason of it? How
many thousands upon thousands of hours of agony
48
Discovery of Anesthesia.
have been swept away and thrown into bottomless
oblivion by reason of the thought of that young
dentist frfty years ago to-day? I knew all about it;
where the office was, where Samuel A. Cooley was
executing a dance and cracked his shin and the
blood ran down into his shoe. Wells asked him if
it didn't hurt him. He said: "I hit the bench, but
I didn't know it hurt me," but all the while the blood
was trickling down in his shoe, and then Wells said:
"A new era in surgery!"
He was a man of ideality, — a sensitive and quiet
sort of man. He was a sort of poet in his way. He
had been dreaming for some time of some way of
escaping pain. His inquiry was whether a man
might not take that gas and not know when a
tooth was pulled if Sam Cooley (we all affectionately
called him that) could hurt himself that way and not
know it, — if a tooth might not be pulled the same
way. You might think any one would have made
that remark, that it was the most natural thing in
the world to have said, but somehow or other it is
only the real genius that does say that kind of thing
after all, as Jenner discovered vaccination.
Then to try it he got John W. Riggs to pull a
tooth for him. Riggs held the bag and adminis-
tered the nitrous oxid while Sam Cooley stood in
front of Wells to keep him from jumping out of
the window, for he knew how it affected a man.
When consciousness was regained Wells said: "A
new era in tooth pulling; it didn't hurt me the prick
of a pin." Then he thought it could be ex-
49
The Fiftieth Anniversary
tended to surgical operations, and it was not long
before others were discussing this success under sul-
furic ether, and within a year three operations were
performed: a very serious surgical operation by Dr.
Marcy under the influence of sulfuric ether and the
other two by Dr. Morton.
Here is a little handbook that Wells published
defending himself, and here is another, gotten up in
great indignation that any one should try to de-
fraud Horace Wells of the honor of his discovery.
Wells went to a college in Boston and demonstrated
his discovery. He explained it to Morton, and
Morton went one day and got Jackson and spoke
about nitrous oxid, and Jackson suggested that sul-
furic ether would do about as well, and on that those
two men, on that shady thing, claimed they
were the discoverers and they joined in the applica-
tion for a patent which Morton obtained. The
patent was very carefully drawn. He didn't say
anything about nitrous oxid gas; he knew perfectly
well all that Wells had done. It was simply sug-
gested to him that there were other agents that had
similar properties and would bring about a similar
anesthetic state. They did not pretend to have dis-
covered anesthesia, because they did not want to per-
jure themselves. Why, when the steam engine was
invented by Watt, it would have been just precisely
the same thing if some one had come along and sug-
gested that coal be used instead of wood, and then
to have claimed to be the inventor of the steam en-
gine; just as much' reason precisely. The only
50
Discovery of Anesthesia.
question was whether there were other agents that
would bring about the anesthetic state.
Jackson never claimed to be the inventor of
anesthesia.
Your dentists and medical men have been oper-
ating upon us, your surgeons and physicians, and
with the antiseptic treatment have made wonderful
advances in the treatment of all these internal dis-
orders and derangements of whatever kind. They
are literally extracting everything, no matter where
it may be in you, that is disagreeable in any way;
they cut it out and sew it up and put in a little silver
wire and you are all right, and you don't know when
it was done either.
I thank you, and will not detain you any farther
than to say to you that to-night we celebrate one of
the greatest American discoveries.
Dr. Darby in calling upon Dr. Truman, said:
The dental profession claims among its own
numbers the discoverer of anesthesia. It gives me
pleasure to call upon a dentist to respond to the
toast, — "Anesthesia as a Dental Discovery." I refer
to Professor Truman, of the University of Pennsyl-
vania.
Dr. Truman said: I have been impressed to-
night with the story with which you are all familiar,
or were familiar with in your early childhood, — the
story of the "Ugly Duckling," by Hans Christian
Andersen. You remember that this ugly duckling
came out of his shell late; he was picked at, was
51
The Fiftieth Anniversary
persecuted, and loved by no one, and the only talent
he had was that he was able to swim. As he passed
on through life he happened upon a tribe of wild
ducks, and the leader of the ducks said to him: "You
are very ugly, but you can swim and you can fly, and
I think I will adopt you into our tribe; but you must
remember you are never to marry into our family,"
— and eventually the duckling became a beautiful
swan.
Now, it seems to me that dentistry occupies, in
its relations to the professions, very similar charac-
teristics to that ugly duckling. It was born late.
It began its life in the middle of the last century,
and has been growing and building its own centers
of instruction, laying its foundations in therapeutics
and pathology, and upon experience creating a pro-
fession worthy the name. Standing this even-
ing before this august assembly, I feel that the
representation from fourteen states gathered here to
do honor to one of our number indicates a profes-
sional spirit which rejoices my heart.
When Horace Wells, in Hartford, in 1844, dis-
covered the properties of anesthesia, unnamed at
the time, did he confine it to his own selfish pur-
poses? It was a transition period in dentistry.
Every professional man's hand was against every
other man's. Horace Wells was broader than those
with whom he came in contact. He desired to give
the benefit of his knowledge to that "greater world,"
as Goethe loved to call it. He believed it was capa-
ble of being used in major surgery, and did all that
52
Discovery of Anesthesia.
was possible to arouse interest among medical prac-
titioners. He went to that great center of medical
instruction, Boston, and gave an exhibition before
the medical faculty and students, and was hissed
from their presence. This action will ever remain to
the discredit of the medical profession in Boston.
But Boston is not alone in this, for every age
has stoned its prophets, and will probably continue
to do this to the end of time.
Dr. B. W. Richardson, of England, has in these
latter days, and indeed in the past few weeks, in
Longman's Magazine, undertaken to tear the mantle
from Horace Wells's shoulders and place it upon
those of Sir Humphry Davy. It has been a long
period to wait to perform an act of this character;
ninety-four years since Humphry Davy undertook
to promote the discovery of Priestley.
It is pertinent just here to consider what con-
stitutes a discovery. It is certainly true that very
few new things are born into the world through the
unaided efforts of a single individual. The inspira-
tions, apparently floating through the mental ether
of the world, drop here and there as in the parable,
some on rocky, some on poor, and some on fruitful
soil. That falling on rocky soil dies in its birth, that
on poor soil produces but a weakling, but the
third brings forth fruit worthy of the generation.
It fell upon Priestley, and there was no germination;
on Sir Humphry Davy, and it ended in a dream; on
Horace Wells, and the result was for the comfort
and healing of the nations.
53
The Fiftieth Anniversary
Has this introduction of anesthesia been of any
real benefit to dentistry? I might say almost noth-
ing. To be sure, in the earlier "duckling" age of
this profession, the extraction of teeth was the prin-
cipal business of the operator; but to-day dentistry
has grown far beyond that. We might now follow
the old Delphian idea and hang up in our temples —
in our operating rooms and offices — the leaden for-
ceps indicative that no tooth should be removed un-
til it could be extracted by such an instrument.
When Dr. Richardson wrote the article alluded
to, he very vividly described the condition of sur-
gery just prior to the introduction of anesthesia.
He recalls the feelings of the surgeon, with all the
care and anxiety of the day before him; the horror
of the students, and the cries of the patients. Is it
any wonder that there was intense excitement when
the surgeon entered the classroom and announced
that there would be no lecture that day, "that he had
a piece of news to communicate, — nothing less than
the discovery of a method by which the most im-
portant surgical operation could be performed while
the patient was asleep !" The news had come from
Massachusetts Hospital. It is not surprising that
the students followed the surgeon to the amphi-
theater to see this wonderful operation. Was there
one in that excited audience who thought of Sir
Humphry Davy? No, he was entirely forgotten.
When we contemplate the past history of the
world, the horrors of the battlefields, the terrors of
the hospitals, and the accidents of life, the mind fal-
54
Discovery of Anesthesia.
ters in its attempt to grasp the aggregate of human
misery. Who can translate this into words suitable
for modern comprehension? This wail of the ages
was voiced in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the
Great Master of human thought, in anticipation of
the cruel agonies of the cross, lifted up his voice and
prayed: "Father, let this cup pass from me!" Eight-
een centuries passed into oblivion with no response;
but near high noon of the nineteenth, in the new
world of Columbus, in a humble home in Hartford,
there arose a "still small voice" sounding above this
wilderness of suffering. It was wafted over the deep
waters, echoed and re-echoed in joyous acclaim
throughout the world: "Lo, the cry of agony from
the surgeon's knife is silenced forever!"
We cannot deify thee, as the ancient Greeks
would have done, but we give thee most hearty
thanks, and in our heart of hearts we enshrine thee,
O Anesthesia, goddess of our modern civilization!
though not the firstborn, the loveliest of all the
children of discovery in this our nineteenth century!
The professor was accorded long and continuous
applause.
Dr. Darby then said: The discovery of Horace
Wells and the discoveries which have succeeded
those of Horace Wells have undoubtedly been of
inestimable value to the evolution of surgery, to the
medical profession, — to the surgical part of the medi-
cal profession, — and they are greatly indebted to
the discovery of anesthesia, and it gives me pleasure
to call upon the gentleman to respond to the toast,
55
The Fiftieth Anniversary
— "Anesthesia as a Factor in the Evolution of Sur-
gery," by Dr. James William White, Professor of
Surgery in the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. J. William White responded: Mr. Chair-
man and gentlemen, the discovery of anesthesia af-
fected the practice of surgery instantly; the princi-
ples of surgery more slowly. It revolutionized the
art in a twelvemonth; its influence on the science
was more gradual, though none the less radical. Its
effect upon the individual patient and operator of
the period was little less than magical. Like the
enchanted carpet of the Arabian Nights, it trans-
ported them in the twinkling of an ey3 from the
glaring light of one hemisphere to the soft darkness
of the antipodes; from an atmosphere of pain, suffer-
ing, and agony, of tense nerves and noisy struggles,
of mental horror and physical anguish, to one of
quiet slumber and sweet oblivion. If it had done
nothing more for the victim of surgical disease and
injury than to blot out the pain which from the
very earliest dawn of surgery was inseparable from
its procedures; if it had done nothing more for the
operator than to transform the shrieking, writhing
patient, strapped to the table and held there by stal-
wart assistants, into the passive, unresisting and un-
conscious subject of his knife, it would have justified,
a hundred times over, this commemorative gather-
ing. It would have been an achievement beyond all
praise to have diminished by this much the sum of
human suffering, to have added by this much to the
efficiency of surgery, if it had done nothing more.
56
Discovery of Anesthesia.
But these most obvious and most immediate re-
sults of the discovery of anesthesia were the very
least of the blessings that were to spring from it. It
is not too much to say that it and it alone brought
into the realms of possibility every great advance
which has succeeded it. Dozens of modern opera-
tions unknown and undreamed of in 1844, each of
which has been followed by a reduction in mortality,
affecting tens of thousands of patients, owe their
birth to our ability to secure absolute quietude and
full muscular relaxation. The professional pillory, if
not the actual one, would have awaited the pro-
poser of any of them five short decades ago, and he
would have been classed literally and unhesitatingly
among the criminal lunatics. The processes of
disease and the results of traumatism are now suc-
cessfully combated in regions which were uninvaded
in pre-anesthetic days, and were thought to be surgi-
cally unassailable. Astley Cooper and Ferguson,
Velpeau and Dupuytren, stood helpless and useless
before cases cured to-day by any recent graduate of
a good medical school. The brilliant thought, the
inspiration, of Wells fifty years ago so broadened
the field of operative work and widened that of ex-
perimental research on the lower animals that it
made possible the discoveries of Lister and Pasteur
twenty-five years later, and was thus the essential
foundation of the grand superstructure which in its
full development as modern antiseptic surgery saves
weekly more human lives than were sacrificed in all
the campaigns of the Caesars. December, 1844,
57
The Fiftieth Anniversary
seems as far away from December, 1894, in the an-
nals of surgical science as does the battle of Hastings
from the last combat in the present war in the East,
and it is no exaggeration to say that even in that
half-civilized part of the world the surgical methods
of to-day are so far beyond and superior to those
of 1844 as were those of the latter date in advance
of the methods of the eleventh century. The work
of fifty years has surpassed and outstripped beyond
all comparison that of eight hundred years. Anes-
thesia and antiseptics have in this short time wiped
out of existence an amount of suffering, disease, and
death contrasted with which the mortality and
misery of war, famine, and pestilence sink into in-
significance.
It is not to be thought that surgery has reached
its culmination. It might be imagined that the
generation which in its infancy had witnessed the
triumphs of vaccination and the introduction of an-
esthesia, in middle life had been thrilled by the won-
ders of antiseptics, and in its old age, in these de-
clining years of the century, had seen the subjuga-
tion of more diseases than had been brought under
control in all the previous eighteen hundred years of
the Christian era might be content; but such is not
the case. Investigation, experiment, research, are
going on more rapidly than ever before. The prizes
to be won are as great as any yet secured. Tubercle
and cancer remain to immortalize the men who shall
finally conquer them, and although we of this gen-
eration may not live to see it, there can be small
58
Discovery of Anesthesia.
doubt of its ultimate accomplishment. While the
look backward to the middle of the century is full
of glorious memories for the surgeon who loves his
art, the look forward is equally full of eager anticipa-
tion; and for both the magnificent advances of the
past and the splendid hopes for the future surgery
owes a debt of undying gratitude to Horace Wells
as the builder of the foundation, the layer of the cor-
nerstone.
In calling upon the next speaker, Dr. Darby said:
We have with us to-night a gentleman who has writ-
ten much and talked a great deal on the subject of
anesthesia; a gentleman, I might say, whose reputa-
tion in that line is such that any statement he might
make would be almost without question. It gives
me pleasure, therefore, to call upon that gentleman
to respond to the toast, — "The Debt of Medicine
to Anesthesia," — Prof. Horatio C. Wood.
Professor Wood responded: Gentlemen, your
much-esteemed leader and colleague, Dr. Kirk, said
to me four days ago that I would not be wanted to
speak on this occasion. He came to me this even-
ing and said that in the absence of the greater
Pepper you would like to hear from the lesser
Wood. Of course, I hesitated, but, after all, small-
ness has its compensations. It takes the great
lakes, the months of time, and a rolling Niagara to
make the diapason of the wonderful cataract, but
toss a stone in the purling stream and it sings its
song; and if it only sings modestly and forgetful of
59
The Fiftieth Anniversary-
self, men listen and are instructed or comforted; so
the lesser man, forgetful of self, can often teach the
wise listener. Again, the man who has only a few
books in his library does not take long to find any
one on occasion, and so, since I have been sitting
here, I looked over my scantily furnished shelves and
brought forth a book, and this is what I read in it:
That once upon a time twins were born into the
world. One lusty and full of vigor, shouting always
his own praises, pressing to the forefront of the bat-
tle, living in blood, accident, and death; doing manly
service always to his fellows. And the other was a
quiet man, keeping in the background; thinking
much; laboring more; speaking never of himself, but
doing what he could in God's name for humanity;
and the one was Surgery and the other Medicine.
(Applause.)
To the surgical twin, the man of blood and deeds,
anesthesia has come as the greatest boon; to the
philosophical thinker, the man of quiet reserve, anes-
thesia is at the first sight not so much a gift. It is
true, in the agonies of the sick room, when some
spasm strains the human frame, the doctor would
often be powerless to give relief had it not been for
the great gift which came out of the city of Hart-
ford; but this is only a trifle, so to speak, only a
rare event in the daily life of the medical practi-
tioner. The point I want to make to you is, how-
ever, that deeper than you think, perchance, anes-
thesia lies at the foundation of the great science of
medicine. Men may say what they please; may pour
60
Discovery of Anesthesia.
foul epithets upon the heads of those of us who are
guilty of the practice of vivisection, but had it not
been for anesthesia few would have had the nerve
and the hard-heartedness to inflict upon the lower
animals the pains of vivisection, and were it not for
vivisection there were no modern medicine to-day.
(Applause.)
The old clinical method of comparing case with
case, and accident of treatment with accident of
treatment, was long ago exhausted. By such work,
scarcely a fact has been added to medicine since I
was a boy among medical students. Only as we
have the power to vary the terms of the experiment
can the experimental science increase, and so anes-
thesia has made possible modern physiology; has
made possible modern antiseptic surgery; has made
possible modern medicine; has made possible this
great and wonderful progress, which sometimes we
stand by and look upon with reverential awe. This
is what anesthesia has done for medicine.
Will you pardon me a little thought that may
seem digressive to you, but I cannot refrain because
to-night I am bitter with indignation? It is this:
That over and against modern medicine stands a
great mass of the non-thinking public in bitter an-
tagonism. We spend our lives ministering to the
sick and the suffering and the dying, and they re-
ceive us with pleasure, with grateful hearts, with
true eagerness, in the hour of peril, but often they
scorn us and our methods, and would persecute us
to the death in health. Do you ever go back in your
61
The Fiftieth Anniversary
memories to Servetus, as, bound to the stake before
a slow fire, he gave up his soul, asking Christ to par-
don Calvin, the theologian, for the bloody crime of
his death? A typification of what medicine has too
often been on the one hand, and the misguided peo-
ple on the other. Nearly every other winter Dr.
Mitchell and myself have to go to the Legislature
of Pennsylvania. For what? To keep ourselves out
of the Eastern Penitentiary! That is virtually
true! Five per cent, of our lives — of our leisure
lives that ought to be spent in the work of dis-
covery — are spent in protecting ourselves and other
physiologists against the people. Do you know
what happened in this city the other day? Five
men thrown into prominence by political power
have degraded from position in a city hospital one
of the most brilliant young physicians. For what?
Because he tried to make a discovery and to follow
in the footsteps of Wells. Don't make discoveries,
they said, in action; you are put there to save the
patients, and the patients shall not be allowed to
suffer at all; and if, in our judgment, another pang
is given a man in order that the world may be helped,
we'll turn out the doctor that does it! Gentlemen,
has the taxpayer no right in the city hospitals?
Have the great bulk of humanity no rights in the
city hospitals? Has it come to this that in a city
hospital a man must mentally weigh every dose of
medicine he will give, and say whether it is the best
possible medicine that could be given to that pa-
tient, and never press forward in the science by ex-
62
Discovery of Anesthesia.
periment? I hold it to be a truth unalienable and
absolute that no doctor has a right to put a man's
life in peril, or put a man to any grievous injury for
gain of knowledge, but I hold it also to be a truth
that medicine is an experimental science, and if there
be no room allowed for clinical experiment there can
be no advance in the science of medicine. If a new
drug be discovered, to determine the value of the
medicine, on whom does the doctor try it? Usually
on himself.
When I came to the conclusion that strontium
salicylate was a useful remedy, I tried it first on my-
self, next on my wife.
Let me say another word on a similar thought:
In this republic there are few open rewards for men
who — devoting themselves to science — really sacri-
fice their lives for other people. Is there in the
whole United States, from Canada on the north and
Gulf of Mexico on the south, one statue to a doctor,
unless, perhaps, that doctor has been a politician?
Then the marble has been erected to the politician
and not to the doctor. It is not a little thing that
in these United States we have no distinctions, no
open rewards for great deeds done in science. Do
we wonder that Mammon worship grows when there
is no reward to a medical man except his own sense
of doing right, for the act of self-denial by which he
puts off the making of money in order to achieve the
higher work of discovery? Did you ever hear of
Leidy, — the greatest scientist that the city of Phila-
delphia has ever produced? (Applause.) Leidy,
63
The Fiftieth Anniversary
the one man of America that was crowned by the
French Academy of Science. He died, — five or six
lines in the newspapers. That was all. Where is
his grave? His monument? Why, gentlemen, if
he had died in the city of Berlin a great civic and
military funeral would have marked the national
loss. Somebody said to me within a few days:
"Why didn't you Philadelphia doctors discover anti-
toxin?" Why? If we had tried to have done so we
would have been put out of the hospitals! Why
should the man sacrifice his personal gain and labor
for the general good? Why should the prophet
come when the people stone him? It is not to the
surgeon that anesthesia does good; it is not to the
doctor that anesthesia gives aid; it is to the people
If the people were intelligent and knew what was for
their own good, endowed laboratories, with large
salaries for the few men of genius who are capable
of running them, would abound.
And I felt, while listening to the speech of Sena-
tor Hawley, that the city of Hartford is proud of not
only the man it has produced, but also of itself.
And why of itself? Because, forsooth, fifty years
after the man had been allowed to die in poverty it
put up a commemorative tablet. Even this is a
wonderful thing for an American city to do. For
doing even this Hartford ought to be put upon a
hill so that it could not be hid. (Applause and
laughter.)
(Senator Hawley here remarked that many years
ago the people of Hartford put up a very noble
64
Discovery of Anesthesia.
statue in the City Park to Horace Wells, the discov-
erer of anesthesia.) "There," said General Hawley,
"is our challenge."
Dr. Wood continued: Didn't I say right then,
that the city of Hartford ought to be set upon a hill
where we could worship it? Was I not right?
(Applause.)
Dr. Darby: Nearly all that has been said to-day
of the discovery of Horace Wells has been stated
from the standpoint of the dentists, physi-
cians, and surgeons. I will now call upon a gentle-
man to respond to the toast: "The Mastery of Pain
from the Standpoint of a Layman." I shall now
call upon Colonel McClure, editor of the Philadel-
phia Times.
After the applause had subsided, following his
introduction by Dr. Darby, Colonel McClure said:
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I wish to say at
the opening that Dr. Wood certainly does not read
The Times of this city, or he missed the number is-
sued the day after the death of Doctor Leidy. I al-
ways keep a doctor on the staff of The Times, and
permit him to write on subjects relative to medicine.
I always keep a preacher on the staff of The Times
also, but he is not permitted to write about religion.
I am very glad to have the opportunity to re-
spond to this toast which has been assigned to me.
I know all about it. Sometimes it disqualifies men
for making after-dinner speeches when they know
something about the subject, but I understand the
subject of dentistry from its most primitive condi-
65
The Fiftieth Anniversary
tion to its present wonderful achievement, and I
must take chances. I was raised in the mountains
of Pennsylvania, where dentists were unknown in
my early days. I do not recollect even of reading
of them in the newspapers. When I was quite a
small boy, the man upon whom the drawing of teeth
fell was the neighborhood blacksmith, — because he
was very strong of arm. He had an instrument
something like a gimlet with a hook to it which he
used for dental operations.
In the course of time we progressed in the coun-
try as they do everywhere, and I remember the first
advent of the dentist in the mountain neighbor-
hoods of interior Pennsylvania. They stood one
day at one place, and another at another. You
would see handbills around the neighborhood
that the celebrated horse would stand at the Bull
Tavern so many days this week, and so many days
next; and you would also see posted a bill stating
that the dentist would be there on certain days of
each month. They were peripatetic, coming and
pulling out teeth in the neighborhood and arrang-
ing to do little odds and ends. That was the be-
ginning, — of course I don't know whether there
was even any dental school in the city of Philadel-
phia at that time, fifty years ago. (Some one sit-
ting near the Colonel stated there was not.) There-
fore you can form some idea of the kind of men we
had for dentists, — generally men who were unfitted
to do anything else. (Laughter.) I have also a
pretty distinct recollection of the introduction of an-
esthesia in the country.
66
Discovery of Anesthesia.
Forty-six years ago I was publishing a village
newspaper. It was the only period in my life, as I
recall it, when I thoroughly understood the news-
paper business. As I have grown older I have had
more experience as an editor, but find I have now to
learn something every day. Then I did not need
it, — I knew it all. We had two village newspapers
which employed two journeymen printers and two
apprentices. One of them was a very enterprising
and progressive sort of man, and I was somewhat
progressive myself, especially if the experiment was
to be made on somebody else. We had read and
discussed this thing in the village tavern in the even-
ings, — this discovery of anesthesia or chloroform, —
but, of course, knew nothing about it. As country
people like to talk over every subject that comes up,
we discussed it very exhaustively, and finally one
of the enterprising journeymen printers, who hap-
pened to be my journeyman, concluded that it was
something that ought to be tested and demon-
strated, and he proposed himself as the man upon
whom the experiment should be made. I was per-
fectly willing he should be that man. We got a
young doctor, who did not know much more about
it than we did, to administer chloroform in the print-
ing office of this journeyman printer with great suc-
cess. He upset nearly every case of type in the
office, and it took four men to hold him, and took
an hour to get him out of it, but we concluded then
that it was a very successful experiment, and that
this was certainly a very great discovery in science.
67
The Fiftieth Anniversary
I claim some little credit, therefore, for aiding the
discovery of anesthesia. (Laughter.)
I remember some thirty years ago suffering very
much with toothache, when I lived in Chambers-
burg. Then there were accomplished dentists, —
educated dentists, — and we had one there. I went
to him to have this tooth extracted. Of course, you
don't go to have a tooth extracted until it is very
much inflamed, everything about it very sensitive
to the touch, and you can't sit still for a man to get
proper hold of the tooth. It is simply a question
of grabbing and jerking, — and he went at it. It was
a wisdom-tooth, and he made a grab and jerk and
broke it off under the gum. In a few days it became
very troublesome again. I had been reading the
accounts of using gas in this city for drawing teeth.
As there seemed to be no other way of getting this
tooth out, I 'came to Philadelphia and went to the
office of Dr. Thomas, — I believe it was he who first
introduced it here. I remember going to his office
and making considerable inquiry about it, and his
showing me a list of the names of the persons to
whom gas had been administered. I remember that
it was about eighteen hundred; that was the entire
number of people in this commonwealth to whom
gas had been applied to that time. I knew very
little about it, of course, but felt much concerned,
though he quieted me and assured me that it was
perfectly harmless. There was no sign of instru-
ments in the office. I sat down in the chair and he
administered the gas. After a while I came to, and
68
Discovery of Anesthesia.
I saw the case closed up ; no sign of anything having
been done, and I said: "Why didn't you draw the
tooth?" "Why," said he, "here it is." I am giving
you precisely what happened. When sensibility was
restored I had not felt anything whatever; I sup-
posed he had not attempted to draw the tooth.
Since that time I have had a number of teeth drawn.
Whenever I find it necessary to have a tooth drawn
I go to my work as usual in the morning until mid-
day, or about midway between meals, then take my
hat and go over to Dr. Thomas's and have one
drawn, come back and go to work. (Applause.)
I have never had the slightest inconvenience in
any way whatever. I now think no more of having
a tooth drawn than taking a glass of water. I am
delighted, indeed, that we have reached this point.
Dr. White tried his best to cut me in pieces during
the last year. Seven times he amused himself with
his scalpel upon me, — I knew no more about it than
any person in this room. (Applause.) Ether was
administered without difficulty, — never had any
knowledge of or inconvenience from it, — and when
the doctor felt ambitious he would simply adminis-
ter it and whack away at me. Life was saved by it
in my case beyond doubt. (Applause.) It is not
a matter of dispute at all that but for the advance in
medical science and the application of anesthesia I
would not be among the living to-night!
It has developed not only the destruction of
pain, but it has developed the very highest standard
of surgery. The world never had such surgeons as
69
The Fiftieth Anniversary
it has to-day, never in its history; not because
men are greater to-day than they have been, — al-
though they are as great as of any period of the
world, in all professions, for we live in the best age
the world has ever seen, — but because of the dis-
covery of anesthesia. It gave the profession of sur-
gery the opportunity for the highest possible devel-
opment, and, while Dr. White seems to be certain
that we shall see advances in the future even yet
beyond what has been attained to-day, it does seem
almost impossible.
I beg my friend, Dr. Wood, to be of good cheer.
I have never known a monument of an editor to be
erected in the United States. I have never known
a monument of a lawyer erected in the United
States. I don't recollect the monument of a
preacher in the United States, — I mean as a
preacher. I do not know of any intellectual profes-
sion in this country, save that of statesmanship, that
has received any monument from the people or the
nation.
Be of good cheer, my friend. You are not be-
hind the rest of the men engaged in intellectual de-
velopment in the monuments which are reared to
your great achievements. I grant we erect monu-
ments rarely, and so has all the world, and we
haven't got beyond it, — perhaps never shall, — I am
not certain we ever should. We erect monuments
to statesmen. Why should we not? They are the
leaders and idols of the people. The men who
create our laws; the men who mold our Govern-
70
Discovery of Anesthesia.
ment; the men in whom the people place their very-
highest confidence; and not one of them who has
ever achieved has failed to have his praises sounded,
and so it must be until time shall be no more.
He makes one just complaint against the people.
That is that medical advancement, medical science,
is hindered by the people, — by ignorance. He did
not use that term, but I do. Hindered by dema-
gogues and notoriety seekers, who play upon the
passions and prejudices of the ignorant, who teach
them that medical advancement is brutal. But we'll
get beyond that, doctor. The newspapers are grow-
ing very much in importance and circulation, and
just as they have grown so has intelligence widened
and liberality progressed. In teaching as you do
the right of the medical profession to employ every
just means for its advancement, the press will sus-
tain you. There has never been a contest of the
kind in Pennsylvania when the press has not made
public sentiment, so that you don't have to go to
any special trouble to keep out of prison. We are
living in an age so full of hope and beauty that I
almost regret I am getting old myself. I think it is
a great mistake for men to brood over the fact that
they are getting old. There is nothing in the world
more beautiful than he who grows old gracefully.
I have never seen a day when I would want to turn
back the march of progress. Every condition has
its compensations, its duties, its achievements, its
pleasures. And when I look at the young men
around me on occasions like this, men of intelli-
7i
The Fiftieth Anniversary
gence, men of other professions, and think what op-
portunities they have which we had not, and how the
great highway to advancement is to be widened and
broadened and the goal made more easy of access
from year to year, I envy you that which you may
achieve far beyond what we have achieved. It is,
indeed, a season and time of hope; a time that should
inspire every young man to the noblest efforts in his
profession in the advancement of all that can benefit
mankind.
Only appreciate your opportunity, and when you
shall come back to an occasion of this kind, a gen-
eration hence, you will find that you have surpassed
all that has been reached in the brilliant records of
present achievement. The world is progressive; it
moves, and, though it may be hindered and bothered
by ignorance and superstition, it will as steadily set-
tle to the right to the grand consummation as the
quivering needle settles to the pole.
In introducing the next speaker, Dr. Darby said:
We have with us a member of the dental profession
who has made for himself a reputation as an author
and a teacher; a gentleman who has prepared and
published the most exhaustive and magnificent chap-
ter upon anesthesia, in that most magnificent work,
— the system of dentistry, — that we have ever seen,
and it gives me pleasure to call upon him to-night to
respond to the toast, — "The Development of Our
Knowledge of Anesthesia," — Wilbur F. Litch, of the
Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery.
72
Discovery of Anesthesia.
Dr. Litch responded: Mr. President and gentle-
men, with the admirable addresses of Dr. Fillebrown
and of Dr. Garretson fresh in my memory, I have
listened to the interesting responses which have been
made to the toasts of the occasion, and there has
come to my mind with renewed force and signifi-
cance that utterance of the great English historian,
Lecky, who said: "It is probable that the American
inventor of the first anesthetic has done more for the
true happiness of mankind than all the moral philos-
ophers from Socrates to Mill."
In the year 1832 the distinguished French sur-
geon, Velpeau, published a work upon operative sur-
gery in which he made this assertion: "To avoid
pain under incisions is a chimera which is no longer
pursued by any one. A cutting instrument and pain
in operative surgery are two words which never
present themselves separately to the mind of the
patient, and of which he must of necessity admit the
inevitable association."
Some fifteen years later the same great surgeon
recorded the fact that, under the influence of sulfuric
ether, he had just removed a cancer from the thigh
of a patient without the slightest sensation. Now,
this was a wonderful and memorable revolution in
sentiment, and I have been asked to trace the de-
velopment of our knowledge of anesthesia, — to fol-
low the progress of the events which made that won-
derful reversal of opinion and that marvellous result
possible.
To do this systematically I should have to go
73
The Fiftieth Anniversary
back through the crude empiricism of the ancient,
medieval, and modern world, down to the discovery
of Horace Wells, and so on through the patient and
painstaking investigation of the past half-century.
There is, of course, here neither time nor space for
a retrospect so exhaustive in character, — exhaustive
not only of the subject, but in all probability of the
audience, as subjects exhaustively treated are apt
to be.
It will, I think, suffice to say, in regard to ob-
tunding pain, that it is a primitive instinct of man,
and that there has never been a time when anesthesia
has not been sought for, and, as was stated this after-
noon, by many of the nations of antiquity, and even
of more modern days, anesthesia was practiced, al-
though, of course, by methods all more or less crude
and imperfect. Still, imperfect as these methods
were, they were not by any means entirely ineffec-
tive if the statements of many writers on this sub-
ject can be believed, and the marvel is that some
one of these methods was not systematized and per-
petuated. It is true, of course, years ago, that in
the employment of mandragora, hyoscyamus, hemp,
and opium, the agents chiefly relied upon, the dose
was difficult to regulate, and there was always great
danger that in narcotizing the sensory nerve-tracts
there might be produced fatal narcosis of the centers
of respiration and circulation.
A much safer and often a more effective anes-
thetic, however, was alcohol in its various forms, the
stupefying effect of which mankind has been ac-
quainted with from quite a remote antiquity.
Discovery of Anesthesia.
Sulfuric ether was known for some five hundred
years before Morton used it, and nitrous oxid gas
was known for seventy years before it was applied
by Wells. Why, centuries ago, was not alcohol to
full intoxication systematically administered for an-
esthetic purposes, as has been successfully done in
our own day? Why was not nitrous oxid gas earlier
used, as Wells used it, or ether, after the manner and
for the purpose to which Morton applied it? These
are among the puzzling questions which confront
the student of human history. "The years teach
much which the days never knew," says Emerson.
That mysterious power which works in us and
through us and for us, and which always makes for
righteousness, has its own appointed seasons in
which to nations, as to individuals, it grows in full
measure the fruitage of that which they have sown,
— whether for good or for evil. Anesthesia is as a
flower which has slowly bourgeoned and at last blos-
somed on the cross of human suffering. To His
lips who once hung there, typifying our humanity
and sharing our human anguish, the rude Roman
soldiery pressed a draught bitter but lethal; suffer-
ing humanity to-day breathes deep of subtler es-
sences, and who shall say that the lesson of that life
and of that death has not had, through its human-
izing power, a controlling influence in determining
the great discovery which to-day we commemorate?
We marvel at the slow development of knowl-
edge regarding anesthesia in the past; perhaps fu-
ture generations will find cause for equal wonder-
75
The Fiftieth Anniversary
ment that we are oblivious to facts and principles
which to them may possibly be so simple and so ob-
vious in character. Even now we have no exact
knowledge as to how or why anesthetics anesthetize.
So far as the mechanism of their operation is con-
cerned, the probability is that, as first taught by Ber-
nard, they effect upon the protoplasmic constitu-
ents of nervous tissue a change closely allied, if not
identical, with coagulation. The progressive se-
quences of these effects upon the centers of intellec-
tion, co-ordination, nervousness, respiration, and cir-
culation were clearly described by Flourens in 1847,
and, with the exception of later investigations as re-
gards the effects upon the sympathetic system, the
facts as he then presented them still remain practi-
cally unquestioned and unchanged.
As the result of careful experimentation of the
Hyderabad Commission, the previous generally
accepted view that chloroform is an agent having a
specifically depressant power over the cardiac motor
ganglia has been brought in question, the commis-
sion's experiments apparently establishing the fact
that the depression which results from chloroform
narcosis is produced not by cardiac paralysis, but by
capillary dilatation through the vasomotor system.
Whether a knowledge of this fact will have any in-
fluence in reducing the large percentage of fatalities
which have attended the use of chloroform hereto-
fore remains to be seen. It is a result sincerely to be
hoped for, if not anticipated, because the more thor-
oughly we understand the true role which any agent
76
Discovery of Anesthesia.
plays in the economy of nature the more intelli-
gently and effectively can that agent be applied.
As a result of the discovery of the anesthetic
properties of cocain locally applied, painless surgery
in minor operations is now practicable in a large
number of cases where before general anesthesia
would, of necessity, have been resorted to. Unfor-
tunately, even this agent is not entirely free from
danger, because there have been quite a number of
fatalities, and no inconsiderable number of cases in
which dangerous symptoms have arisen are already
on record. Thus the fact remains that, notwith-
standing all the progress which we have made, the
really ideal anesthetic for prolonged operations, at
any rate, remains to be discovered, — an anesthetic
which shall at once be perfectly safe, perfectly ef-
fective, and entirely convenient of administration.
Were it not for certain mechanical difficulties,
nitrous oxid itself, in due admixture with oxygen, —
a combination which is at once lethal and life-giving,
— would very closely approximate the ideal which
we seek. That these mechanical difficulties may yet
be overcome is quite among the possibilities of the
future.
One word in closing, and I hope I shall not be
held to have struck a false note in this symphony of
praises in what I have to say on this point. Great
as is the boon which anesthetics and pain-obtunding
agents in general have bestowed upon humanity, is
there not some danger that, like all other good
things, their use may be perverted? Are we not grow-
77
The Fiftieth Anniversary
ing too timid in regard to pain, — too clamorous for
instant and immediate relief, even from the slightest
suffering, for suffering which is often salutary, and
which generally comes as a punishment for violation
of natural laws, a punishment really intended by na-
ture to be disciplinary and educational in its charac-
ter? Upon this point a recent writer, La Galliene,
has this to say: "No observing man will deny that
this is comparatively an age of cowardice; at any
rate it is an age of anesthetics. * * * And we
may well pray for the spirit of our brave forefathers,
who went to battle with stouter hearts than we take
to the dentist."
The "peach of emerald hue" and the aching molar
alike have their mission on earth, — a mission which
is far from being done. The hypoderm of the doc-
tor and the gas bag of the dentist may somewhat
interfere with the efficiency of nature's teaching by
diminishing the severity of the punishment which
in her school always follows lessons badly learned;
but, after all, nature does not allow her disciplinary
methods to be seriously interfered with, and, ex-
cellent buffer as it is, the gas bag, allowing that to
typify analgesic agents in general, — however placed
or wherever placed, — cannot do more than some-
what mitigate the anguish of the child or of the man
to whom the good old mother of us all is adminis-
tering a salutary spanking.
Dr. Darby, introducing the next speaker, said:
We have with us a gentleman who has the friendship
78
Discovery of Anesthesia.
and respect of all law-abiding citizens, but for whom
all the criminals stand in awe. It gives me pleasure
to call upon him to respond to the toast, — "The
Medico-Legal Aspect of Anesthesia," — District At-
torney George S. Graham.
Mr. Graham said: Mr. Chairman and friends,
I remember reading some time ago a story
that may be familiar to you all, but its ap-
plicability to myself, under the present circum-
stances, is so very clear that I am sure I will
be pardoned for its' repetition. An old man was
passing through the streets of a busy city when he
observed a laborer with crowbar in hand, hammering
lustily at a cellar wall which projected above the
sidewalk. The old man stopped for a moment and
said: "My friend, what are you doing?" "Why,"
said he, "this cellar is exceedingly dark and I want
to let some light in." The old man went about his
business, but came back an hour or two afterward
and found the man still hammering with the crowbar
against the wall, and he saw that very little, if any,
progress had been made in widening the small aper-
ture in it. He said: "My friend, you don't seem to
have made much progress; you have not illuminated
the darkness of that cellar very much." "Oh," said
the man with great gravity, turning to the interro-
gator, "I have not let much light in, but I have let
a power of dark out." (Laughter.)
"The Medico-Legal Aspect of Anesthesia," —
upon that subject, when I have done, you will unani-
79
The Fiftieth Anniversary
mously say: "My friend, you have not let much light
in, but you have let a power of dark out."
It was said once of the famous Daniel O'Connell
that in a burst of indignation, which must have been
somewhat akin to that which enveloped and ener-
gized our good friend, Professor Wood, to-night,
'he was at a loss, — I do not mean Professor Wood,
for he is never at a loss, — but O'Connell. He was at
a -loss for a word to express his indignation, and he
said, turning to the man: "You unflamblasticated
ruffian." Afterward a friend said to Mr. O'Con-
nell: "What did you mean by that word?" and he
said: "Indeed, I don't know; I only used it because
it was a big one and had a mighty sound." (Laugh-
ter.) I think your committee, when they selected
the toast to which I was to respond, in choosing
this term, "the medico-legal aspect of anesthesia,"
must have selected it because it was a big phrase
with a mighty sound. And so I will not attempt to
discuss before this learned and intelligent body of
men the relationship between anesthesia and the law,
or, as this term would indicate, how the medical
effects which you have discussed are constantly ap-
plied to or affect the legal profession in the adminis-
tration of justice.
If we were to take anesthesia in its broad sense,
as the professor used it in his splendid speech to-
night, I would say that it sets justice at defiance and
makes courts ludicrous. (Laughter and applause.)
It furnishes many a subject for the knife of the legal
surgeon in the person of the Prosecutor of the Pleas.
So
Discovery of Anesthesia.
On one occasion, — it must have been in the
country where that blacksmith of whom we heard
to-night, with sinewy arms, drew teeth with the
prong of a pitchfork or a gimlet, that this scene
occurred. A lawyer entered the courthouse and he
was greatly under the influence of this anesthetic.
(Applause.) As he stood in the presence of the
court, hardly able to balance himself aright, the
court thought it was proper to administer to him a
severe rebuke, so he said: "Mr. Jones, you are a dis-
grace to yourself; you are a disgrace to your family;
you are ruining your own career, and involving them
in suffering." "And does your Honor address me?"
"Yes, sir; I am addressing you." "Then, sir, it is
the first time, although I have been practicing fifteen
years, that I have heard your Honor deliver a cor-
rect opinion." (Laughter.)
As personal reminiscences seem to be in order to-
night, I will be pardoned, I am sure, for saying that
I, too, can speak gratefully of this great discovery
and its use. In that same chair, doubtless, in which
Colonel McClure sat, it was my privilege to sit. I
went to that office with a palpitating heart, sir; not
as our ancestors went to the field of battle, with
flaming courage and high hope, but I went there
trembling and wondering if there would not be some
restriction of circulation, or some destruction of the
breathing apparatus, and thought that perhaps I
would never come back again to the practice of my
profession, and I was deploring the great loss to this
community. (Laughter.) So I seated myself in
81
The Fiftieth Anniversary
the chair under the persuasive and eloquent voice
of Dr. Thomas, — and all those who have ever lis-
tened to it know what sweet music it is, when we
hear him say: "Now, just rest quietly; think of some-
thing pleasant; now, gently, gently; just one more."
And then, in the last supreme effort to retain con-
sciousness, you hear him say, "Now, then just one
full inhalation," and everything around you ceases to
be. But it didn't for me. That is, I was oblivious
to pain, but my mind seemed to be active. I had
one of the strangest experiences, for a lawyer
(Laughter), that ever fell to the lot of man. I was
pondering upon that question which agitated my
mind when I went under the influence of the gas, —
would I die, or would I know when I ceased to exist?
I thought I had reached the point where separation
of the soul from the body took place; I felt myself
lifted and floating, but, oh, with such delicious sen-
sations, and with musical accompaniment so inex-
pressibly sweet. I was satisfied when I heard the
music, for I said to myself: "I know from the motion
that I am rising, and these sweet sounds of music
can be no other than those which would come from
heavenly sources; I certainly am not going down,
but I am rising to celestial worlds." I was in per-
fect rhapsody, and I said to myself: "Well, if this is
the end it is the right end, and I am satisfied it is
all over, and I will have no more troublesome cases
to try." When filled with this seraphic music and
these delicious sensations of pleasure and delightful
contemplations, I was rudely startled by a push on
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Discovery of Anesthesia.
the shoulder, and a voice saying, "Wake up, wake
up!" Perhaps not as sharp an intonation as that,
for Dr. Thomas never speaks sharply. Then I
found the trick of the music, which was wholly due
to a music box in operation upon the mantelpiece,
and half of that dream was properly the result of this
artificial cause, and was produced with malice afore-
thought. (Laughter.) That is an account of my
first connection of anesthesia with law.
Now, the first criticism I have to make from a
legal view point is this: That that experience and
those charming effects gave the lie to history and
tradition, for there is not a man outside of my own
profession — of course we stand by our profes-
sion and each other — but would have said that
all history and tradition prove that at the Great
Gate there is hardly ever an admission of a lawyer,
yet the exalted effects of this state of insensibility
opened to me a vision of a member of my proscribed
profession entering that shining portal, and the his-
tory and traditions concerning our profession were
flatly contradicted. (Applause.)
Now, there is another word, and it is a word of
caution, for, after all that has been said here to-night
by my friend, Dr. Wood, — and I have very great and
high respect for him, both as a professor and a citi-
zen, — there is a word of caution. These doctors
who fancy that all humanity is indebted to them;
these speculators upon the suffering of the human
frame; these guessers in their diagnoses as to what
ails us when we come to them with an ache or pain,
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The Fiftieth Anniversary
— and who know very little about it until after they
have experimented on us for a very long time, — and
these men in the dental profession who take up and
administer these dreadfully potent agents, I have
simply to say to you that for these strange imagin-
ings that came to me, and which may have come to
others, beware! For some time the patient will
rise from the chair and seek the District Attorney's
office, and tell the terrible scenes through which he
has been compelled to pass, with all the earnestness
of reality, and perhaps charge you with all sorts of
crimes. Therefore, I say to you always do as Dr.
Thomas did, — he always had a witness present. If
you do not do business enough to have a witness
present, make the patient bring a sister or a cousin
or an aunt, and then all will be peaceful and well.
There is another branch, however, of this great
topic upon which I am letting out so much darkness,
and it has been adverted to already to-night in the
remarks upon the relationship between vivisection
and the law. We find a great deal of trouble in har-
monizing these two great classes of benefactors of
the human race, — the doctor who practices vivisec-
tion and the humanitarian who says this is the very
quintessence of cruelty and it ought to be stopped!
We may have the physician in court for cutting to
pieces some beautiful dog, — I feel keenly on this
subject, because I once lost a dog myself (Laugh-
ter), — and there will be arrayed over against him
splendid people, some of his own, and also of the
other sex, — men and women, — with big hearts,
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Discovery of Anesthesia.
warm, thoughtful, and considerate. On the one
side will be the cold, icy surgeon with his knife of
glittering edge, and on the other these zealous hu-
manitarians. And we have to stand — that is, we of
the law — between them, as it were, to administer
equity. So, after the prosecutors have had their say
and the doctors have spoken in reply, and had their
say, we of the law, protecting you in your bloody
pursuit of knowledge, allow the jury to have its say,
and that is always: "Not guilty, but don't do it
again."
Speaking, however, for the moment seriously
upon that question, I feel just as earnestly as Profes-
sor Wood the necessity of making these experi-
ments, and I believe most earnestly that they are
essential to progress and discovery, and result in
great benefit to humanity.
I want to-night to bring my little tribute from
a sister profession and join with you in honoring the
memory of this great discoverer of anesthesia. I
want to come and say with you that it is well to re-
call what he has done, and to speak of him the well-
earned words of praise which have been spoken here
to-night.
What matters it though the statue of marble or
bronze be not reared, if a man lives in the memory
of the intelligent observers of his own profession,
and is honored as the discoverer of something that
brings great good to suffering humanity? There,
there, my brothers, is found the loftiest pedestal on
this footstool of God! (Applause.) It is only this
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The Fiftieth Anniversary
spirit which has convened this distinguished assem-
blage to-night, and it is only this spirit which will
make the distinguished men in any profession to be
properly and suitably honored and respected for
what they have done. Let me say as an axiomatic
truth: Respect for a man in any profession must be-
gin among his brethren in that profession, and never
begins outside of it. (Applause.) First let it be
generated there, and then it spreads until, like a
little leaven, it leaveneth the whole lump. Let the
legal profession honor and esteem its mighty men
and the world will recognize their merit. Let your
association esteem and honor your pioneers in ad-
vancement and discovery, and the whole world will
join in the sweet acclaim of praise and honor to
them and to their memory. (Applause.)
But, after all, what is there that is sweeter, bet-
ter, stronger, more energizing, invigorating, and
grander than a man's own conscience, clear in itself,
conscious of and approving what it has done? No
ungrateful world can rob a discoverer of that one
great source of unextinguishable pleasure. That
man is supremely blessed who, in himself, knows
that he has done something for humanity. He car-
ries with him in his life and takes with him at death
something that is grander than monuments. Aye,
something that is greater even than the gratitude
of his fellow-men in his chosen profession. (Ap-
plause.)
In introducing the next speaker, Dr. Darby said:
We have listened with great pleasure to a statesman,
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Discovery of Anesthesia.
a journalist, a lawyer, and doctors, and now we
want to hear from the clergy. It gives me pleasure
to call upon the Rev. S. D. McConnell to respond to
the toast, — "The Humanitarian Aspect of Anes-
thesia."
Dr. McConnell said: Mr. Chairman and
gentlemen, I wish to make my acknowledg-
ment of your hospitality in inviting me to
share your dinner, which, unfortunately, I was
not able to eat on account of having had an engage-
ment elsewhere. The same reason which prevented
me from eating the dinner has also prevented me
from sharing in the feast of reason and flow of soul
(and other fluids) which have gone with it.
I fancy if the District Attorney had as much ex-
perience in certain directions as some of the rest of
us have had, he would not have felt disturbed, as he
complains, by the text which was assigned to him,
for if there is one thing which a parson has learned,
it is the ability to escape from a text. (Laughter.)
But, seriously, I do not know of any sort of com-
memorative banquet or public function which I
would have traveled as far to attend, or be as happy
in attending, as the public celebration of the practi-
cal discovery of anesthesia. (Applause.) I have no
hesitation in saying that I would rather be the man
who had discovered anesthesia than any other mor-
tal man who has ever lived. (Applause.) I believe
that when, in the centuries to come, the achieve-
ments of this century shall have been summed up
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The Fiftieth Anniversary
and weighed and measured, and the insignificant
things shall have dropped out of sight, and only
the really valuable things shall have survived,
the one thing for which the century will be remem-
bered will be that it was the one in which anesthesia
was discovered and applied. (Applause.) I do not,
of course, minimize the value of the progress which
has been made in innumerable directions, more par-
ticularly in the physical sciences, by this generation
which it has pleased God to allow us to achieve;
but it seems to me we have before us this evening
one of those great, controlling events that do not
happen once in a generation, or once in an age, or
even once in a millennium, but which happen once —
only once — in the history of humanity.
We are familiar, of course, with the fact of pain,
so familiar that its unbounded wonder escapes us.
Nothing is more dreary, I think, than the disquisi-
tions, learned and otherwise, wise and otherwise,
which have been made concerning the function of
human pain in the economy of humanity. It has al-
ways been a favorite subject with a certain class of
theologians. In any old book or system of theology
you will discover a very large section given to the
discussion of this question, — the meaning and use of
pain. It runs very close to one of those baffling
problems which underlie all human thought; that is,
the origin and function of evil in the universe. The
form which evil takes, ordinarily, is physical pain.
It is the most common phase of all facts, but it is the
most insistent of all facts. The strange property of
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Discovery of Anesthesia.
physical pain is that it produces results out of all
relation to its own magnitude. A very small modi-
cum of pain always makes itself felt, and is so in-
sistent that it compels examination into itself.
Now, here we have, in this discovery of anesthesia,
a power which seems to reverse one of the elemental
forces of nature. By anesthesia that force is turned
backward and nullified, and apparently by the most
insignificant appliances. It is a reversal of forces
as striking as though a cyclone were arrested by oil-
ing the hinge of the weathervane. Nothing, I
think, could have been dreamed of, more utterly in-
credible to the generations that have gone before
our own, than the simple statement that this great
elemental force of the universe is to-day arrested or
turned backward. There seems to be no relation in
the magnitude between the cause and the effect, and
here I approach my text. (One never does ap-
proach his text until toward the end of his sermon.)
And that is this: The wonderful way in which the
universal use of anesthesia has modified and influ-
enced human life, men's ways of thinking and living,
their whole attitude towards life and all that belongs
to life.
Its humanitarian influence has been, it seems to
me, one of the most marked and wonderful of all
these effects. You have all had your attention
called, no doubt, to the fact — or at least what I be-
lieve to be the fact — that the measure of sensibility
to pain is the measure of civilization. The two
things always go together. The lower civilizations
S 9
The Fiftieth Anniversary
are indifferent both to the spectacle and experience
of pain.
Low organisms are relatively insensible to pain;
human beings of a low moral organization are rela-
tively insensible to physical pain.
The measure of the capacity to suffer is the meas-
ure of the capacity to do.
Now, no one will question that, while we live in
an age of physical anesthesia, we live in an age of
moral and intellectual esthetics.
It may be a question, — the intimation has been
very wisely suggested by my friend on my right, —
that it is possible we are becoming hyperesthetical;
that we are losing something of the virility we ought
to have, and the courage, in consequence of the fact
that we have in our power an appliance which is able
to obtund, often absolutely destroy, pain. I do not
think, however, there is any peril from that; for, as
he wisely concluded, after all that is done that can be
done, the most that anesthesia will ever be able to
do is to reduce and confine the operation of physical
pain within the limits of use and healthfulness. It
will never go beyond that. It may put an end to all
these useless philosophical discussions as to the
meaning and function of physical pain, which have
never practically resulted in anything except to ena-
ble the philosopher to bear with equanimity some
other fellow's pain.
There are ways, however, in which the discovery
of anesthetics does constantly affect humanity as a
whole. All who have had any necessity to observe
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Discovery of Anesthesia.
the effect of human suffering must have been pain-
fully impressed with its power to demoralize. The
demoralization caused by physical pain is something
with which all physicians and clergymen are per-
fectly familiar. I know it has often been thought,
and frequently been asserted, that suffering physical
pain has in itself a certain educative power, and that
its intention is to elevate the patient in his spiritual
state. My own observations, so far as I have been
able to make any, lead me to precisely opposite con-
clusions. I think sharp, long-continued, and unen-
durable physical pain usually has quite as bad an
effect on the moral structure of the sufferer as it does
upon his physical make-up, so that anything which
tends to remove physical pain tends in the same
direction to elevate him morally.
Now, we have all grown more and more sensi-
tive; gentler in manner, gentler in thought. Ten-
derness, which is constantly increasing in humanity,
is the measure of its civilization. The world is
growing constantly more gentle just in proportion
as it is not compelled to look constantly upon physi-
cal suffering. If you take a man and set him down
where he is compelled to continuously look at physi-
cal pain that man himself will grow hard. He is
compelled to grow hard in self-defense; the strain
upon his body and mind, long continued, is more
than he can bear. The same is true of humanity as
a whole. The simple fact that to such an extent
the contemplation of physical pain has been re-
moved from us makes humanity as a whole more
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The Fiftieth Anniversary
human. Now, the discoverer who has done this for
humanity has not only relieved pain; he has not only
taken away a part at least of the primeval and origi-
nal curse, — the unspeakable agony of parturition;
he has not only made men, who would not other-
wise have been able to live live ; he has not only made
men who have been cripples and helpless and a bur-
den upon society self-supporting and self-respecting,
but he has done more than that. He has enabled
many and many a timid soul that was frightened in
the presence of the awful fact of existence to look
serenely upon life itself, upon suffering itself, and to
walk down serenely into the last great mystery with
more hope for the future, because he has found this
life itself better than he had feared. (Applause.)
Dr. Darby : Many of us were not present when
Wells made his great discovery, hence such testi-
mony in a court of justice would be valueless,
but we have with us this evening a gentleman who
was present when Horace Wells made his great dis-
covery, and who was an important factor in that
event. It gives me pleasure now to call upon the
gentleman who, notwithstanding his years, is ap-
parently vigorous and hale and is with us this even-
ing. I shall ask him to respond to the toast, — "His-
torical Reminiscences," — G. Q. Colton.
Dr. Colton said: Mr. President and gen-
tlemen, I have a little news to give you which
I think will please you, and that is that I
am going to make a very short speech. I am
92
Discovery of Anesthesia.
put down for reminiscences. Well, we have said
all this afternoon about gas and the discovery of an-
esthesia that I think is necessary. Now I will give
you one or two little items. It has been said by
somebody that "a little nonsense now and then is
relished by the wisest men."
I remember when I was in California, in 1849, I
carried a pair of forceps with me, because I thought
that possibly somebody in the company might want
a tooth extracted. I had never drawn a tooth, but
still, possibly, I might try it at any rate. Well, some-
body heard that I was a doctor. One night a man
came and roused me up from my tent, a great big,
strapping fellow, who said: "I want you to draw a
tooth." He said it was giving him terrible pain.
Well, I got up, struck a light and looked at the
tooth. It was a great big molar, — an upper molar.
I had a pair of straight forceps, and I said to him:
"I cannot draw that tooth. I know it is impossible
for me to draw that tooth." "Well," says he, "you
can try." He said, "I will pay you whether you
pull it or not, — whether you get it out or not."
Well, I put the forceps on and I wrenched and
wrenched, first one way and then the other, to get it
started, but never started it at all, — never moved it
at all. "Well," said the man, "you have scared the
ache out of it, anyhow, and I will pay you." So
I only charged him eight dollars, — half price.
I remember that once I was giving an exhibition
of laughing gas in Cooper Institute, New York, and
had a very large audience. I gave my lecture be-
93
The Fiftieth Anniversary-
fore giving the gas. I talked and talked along
about the properties of the gas and the effect of the
gas, and all that, and I suppose a fellow on the out-
skirts somewhere thought I was talking a little too
long, and he said: "Give us some of the other kind,"
as much as to say that all I was giving them then
was gas, — and I suppose it was.
I never really drew but one tooth in my life.
Two ladies came in my office one day; one of them
had her face all done up, and I said to them: "There
is no person here to draw teeth, — I don't draw
teeth." But she said she came a great distance. I
looked at the tooth and found it was a lower wis-
dom-tooth with no crown to it, standing all alone
by itself, and I told her I could possibly get it out, so
I said: "If this lady will assist me in holding the tube,
so we can give the gas, I will do the best I can. I
will be careful about getting hold of your gum, and
all that, and if I don't get the tooth out you won't
be any worse off than you are now." She took a
seat in the chair, — I knew the instrument the doctor
used for that tooth, — and I gave her the gas and got
her thoroughly under the influence of it. Now, the
doctor just puts his finger under the patient's tongue
and jerks the tooth right out; but I couldn't do that.
It got in the way and the tongue bothered me. I
was working away, and thought I had hold of the
tooth, but was not quite sure of it, and I wiggled and
wiggled away, and for so long that she began to re-
cover. I took the instrument out and the tooth
dropped out on her dress. I had it in the instru-
94
Discovery of Anesthesia.
ment and didn't know it. She said it was a splendid
tooth-drawing.
Now, you may remember a little story that went
the rounds of the papers a few months ago, of a
young man who called upon a gentleman and said:
"I have called, sir, to ask you for the hand of your
daughter. I am poor but have good prospects."
"Well," said the gentleman, "before we enter on that
question, can you accommodate me with five dol-
lars?" "No," said the young man, "I cannot."
"Take her," he said:' "I didn't know you had so
much sense." (Laughter.) Now, there are, I sup-
pose, some young men here who will be interested
in a little bit of Shakespeare. There is one passage
in the play of "Hamlet" which, if a young man will
commit to memory and govern his life accordingly,
he will escape a great many pitfalls.
Now, it is the advice of Polonius to his son,
Laertes. Laertes is going abroad to travel, and his
father gives him this advice:
"Yet here, Laertes ! aboard, aboard, for shame !
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay'd for. There ; my blessing with thee !
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel ;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch' d, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee.
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The Fiftieth Anniversary
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice ;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all ; to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
Dr. Darby next introduced the son of Horace
Wells, saying: There is but one other speaker, and
that will be the son of Horace Wells. We are very
glad to have here to-night a lineal descendant of
Horace Wells, and it gives me pleasure to call upon
Charles C. Wells, of New York, to respond to the
toast, — "Personal Reminiscences."
Dr. Wells responded: Mr. President and gen-
tlemen, the subject "Reminiscences" calls up to me
much of the past and much that is sad. I was
but little more than five years of age when this
discovery you celebrate to-day was made, and too
young then to comprehend its full value or realize
its importance, as I did later. I remember my
father well, and my recollection is helped somewhat
by friends of his and mine, some of them living
to-day, who knew him intimately and are familiar
with the facts connected with this discovery. He
was gentle and quiet in temperament, considerate
of others, and beloved by all. He was a Chris-
tian gentleman. He studied much; was observant
96
Discovery of Anesthesia.
and interested in whatever of discovery and
invention took place in those days. He was a
good deal of a naturalist, and at one time lectured
on natural history, and I remember attending one of
those lectures. He had inventive faculties of a high
order, and had invented some of the instruments
used in his practice and some household appliances
only for personal use, which have since come into
general use. I remember well his office where this
discovery was made, and was often there. I liked to
be with him, and it was an attractive place to me,
for he had there cases of butterflies and stuffed birds,
and other things that interested me.
Professor (afterward President) Abner Jackson,
of Trinity College, testified: "Dr. Wells was a person
of a peculiarly philosophical turn of mind, and was
very much more than an ordinary man. He was ac-
customed to extend his inquiries much beyond the
sphere of his profession, and was well suited to make
such a discovery."
Dr. Marcy testified: "He possessed a peculiarly
active, investigating, and philosophical mind, and
was therefore almost constantly engaged in re-
searches and inquiry such as would naturally attract
the attention of a man of his tastes."
Dr. Ellsworth testified: "He possessed an active
and inquiring mind, and was inventive and versa-
tile."
I remember his times of abstraction when, with
eyes closed, he was studying some subject, as he did
often, and we were careful not to disturb him then.
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The Fiftieth Anniversary
He was sensitive to the infliction of pain in his
practice, and had given much thought fcr at least
two years before the event you celebrate to-day to
the possibility of rendering one unconscious of pain
during surgical operations. That discovery was not
one of accident or chance. He was looking for it
and realized it on that nth day of December,
1844, exclaiming: "It's the greatest discovery ever
made." More than this, he followed this by ex-
periments (always upon himself), with a view of find-
ing other agents to produce the same effect, and
hoped in the possibility of some by which one could
be rendered insensible to pain while conscious other-
wise. He used ether, too, but gave the preference
to nitrous oxid gas.
He suffered in health by these experiments, and
at times was obliged to relinquish his practice for a
while.
He did not seek, as some other claimants did
later, to restrict its use or to profit in its use by oth-
ers, but expressed the wish that "it be as free as the
air we breathe."
In December, 1846, he went to France and was
received with honors, and was afterward made an
honorary member of the Parisian Medical Society,
and received an urgent and distinguished call to re-
move to Paris.
This discovery brought to him little but trouble
and controversy, and he died at the early age of
thirty-three, leaving only the legacy of a good name
and the honor of this discovery. For many years
Discovery of Anesthesia.
following his death others sought to rob him of the
honor due him and obtain recognition and public
money. Those years were full of trouble, and I wish
at this time to pay a grateful tribute to the Hon.
Truman Smith, United States Senator from Con-
necticut, to whom we owe much. Other claims
coming before Congress, upon investigation, he be-
came convinced of the justice of that of Horace
Wells, became his defender and champion, ever after
giving his time and pen freely to his cause and de-
feating attempts by others for recognition and ap-
propriation of money.
Justice moves slowly at times, but it has come
in these later years, and it is a satisfaction to me that
my mother, ever loyal to his memory, suffering
much in the earlier years, refusing more than once
offers of compromise by which large sums could
probably have been obtained, lived to see him fully
recognized and honored as the author of this discov-
ery.
You of his profession have repeatedly honored
his memory; for this and the honor and justice you
pay him to-day I thank you.
It means much, very much, to me, his only de-
scendant; more, I believe, than it can to any one
else living, and it is a satisfaction to me that he ac-
complished so much of blessing to mankind.
This closed the exercises of the day.
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The Fiftieth Anniversary
APPENDIX.
The following statements are taken from the
depositions of participants in the events described in
the foregoing papers. The full text of the evidence
may be found in the library of the Boston Medical
Library Association, and also in Smith's "Anes-
thesia," published in Hartford in 1853:
Linus P. Brockett, M.D., deposed: "I resided
in Hartford in 1840, and knew Dr. Wells.
At this time, in conversation with me, Dr. Wells
remarked 'that he believed that a man might be
made so drunk by this gas, or some similar agent,
that dental and other operations might be performed
on him without any sensation of pain on the part of
the patient.' "
Deposition of G. O. Colton, of the city of New
York: "in the month of December, A.D. 1844, I de-
livered in the city of Hartford, in the state of Con-
necticut, a course of lectures on chemistry and nat-
ural philosophy. I believe the first lecture was de-
livered on the 10th of December. On the same day,
as I now think, I took a bag of the gas to Dr. Wells's
office, and he (Dr. Wells) went out and called in Dr.
Riggs, a dentist nearby. Dr. Wells sat down in a
large armchair, took the bag into his hands, and
breathed the gas until he became insensible, when
Dr. Riggs extracted the tooth, which was a large
double tooth. Dr. Wells remained insensible a
short time after the tooth was extracted, but on re-
Discovery of Anesthesia.
covery he cried out: 'It did not hurt me more than
the prick of a pin; it is the greatest discovery ever
made,' and continued for some time similar exclama-
tions, but what I cannot precisely recollect. I soon
after left Hartford, and did not hear any more of the
subject till I saw, a few weeks subsequent, a para-
graph going the rounds of the newspapers announc-
ing that Dr. Wells was extracting teeth without
pain, and I stated on several occasions, in connection
with that paragraph, how and when the discovery
originated."
Extracts from the deposition of John M. Riggs,
dentist, of Hartford, Conn.: "On the evening of the
ioth of said December, Dr. Wells came into my
office after Mr. Colton's lecture and said that he and
others had taken the above gas; and remarked that
one of the persons had injured himself and stated,
after recovering from the effects of the gas, that he
did not know at the time that he had sustained such
injury. Dr. Wells then said: 'He did not feel it;
why cannot the gas be used in extracting teeth?'
>|« 5j< >ji ^t >|; 5|< 5|S
"The next morning Dr. Wells came with Mr.
Colton and his bag of gas to his (Dr. Wells's) office
and called me in. There were present, besides Dr.
Wells and myself, Mr. Colton, Mr. Samuel A.
Cooley, and some others whose names I cannot now
recall. Dr. Wells, after seating himself in the oper-
ating chair, took the bag and inhaled the gas, and
after he had been brought sufficiently under its influ-
The Fiftieth Anniversary
ence he threw back his head and I extracted the
tooth. It was a large molar tooth in the upper jaw,
such as is sometimes called a 'wisdom-tooth.' It re-
quired great force to extract it. Dr. Wells did not
manifest any sensibility to pain. He remained un-
der the influence of the gas some time after, and im-
mediately upon recovering from it he swung his arms
and exclaimed: 'A new era in tooth pulling!' He re-
marked he did not feel any pain from the operation.
* * * We were so elated by the success of this
experiment that we immediately turned our atten-
tion to the extraction of teeth by means of this
agent, and continued to devote ourselves to this sub-
ject for several weeks almost exclusively. * * *
Dr. Wells continued to use the gas freely in the prac-
tice of dentistry during the remainder of that year
and the year following, and at all times when he was
in the practice of his profession. I myself also used
it as people demanded it, which they ordinarily did.
"It was the subject of profound interest in Hart-
ford, and attracted unusual public attention through
the years 1845 an d 1846. It was notorious here in
the winter of 1844-45 an d afterward that Dr. Wells
had made the important discovery that the system
could be made insensible to pain during dental
operations. Dr. Wells was enthusiastic and san-
guine in the pursuit of objects toward which he
turned his attention, and was one of the most in-
offensive men I have ever known.
"He pursued his business with great ardor when
able to do so, but was obliged occasionally to aban-
Discovery of Anesthesia.
don it, owing to failure of health, but at no time
did he abandon his claim to this discovery or the
use of it. During the intervals of interruption he
referred his patients to me, and would bring them to
my office and ask that gas might be given.
* * * * >!< >;< 5|s
"I find on reference to my books that this agent
was used by me in extracting teeth up to November
2, 1846, which is my last charge."
David Clarke deposed: "I attended the ex-
hibition in Hartford given by Mr. Colton, and saw
Mr. Cooley injure himself and heard him remark:
'I did not feel pain at any time'; still the blood
was running down his limbs. Wells turned to me
and said: 'I believe a man by taking that gas could
have a tooth extracted or a limb amputated and not
feel any pain.'
"A month or two afterward I was in the office of
Dr. Riggs, of this city (Hartford), to have some den-
tal work done, and Dr. Riggs administered the gas
to me and extracted for me a large tooth without
the least pain."
Extract from a deposition of C. A. Taft, M.D.,
of Hartford, Conn.
"I knew the late Dr. Horace Wells, dentist, of
Hartford. I think I first met and knew Dr. Wells
when he came to Boston in January, A.D. 1845, f° r
the purpose of making known his discovery of an
anesthetic agent to the medical faculty of that city.
103
The Fiftieth Anniversary
I was at that time a member of the medical class of
Harvard University.
"Dr. Wells was introduced to our class by Dr.
John C. Warren, then Professor of Anatomy at the
University. Dr. Wells then made a statement of
his discovery, spoke of its importance, and his hopes
of introducing it — the anesthetic agent — into gen-
eral use in surgical operations.
"On the same or the following evening Dr. Wells
proceeded to administer the nitrous oxid gas to sev-
eral of the students and spectators present. At this
time Dr. Wells extracted a tooth for some one un-
der the influence of the gas. The patient hallooed
somewhat during the operation, but on his return to
consciousness said he felt no pain whatever. I took
the gas with others at that time, and while under
its influence I was entirely unconscious. Others to
whom the gas was administered made the same
declaration. The gas was administered and inhaled
from a mouth-piece attached to a bag.
"I regarded the operation at Boston, above de-
scribed, as successful and as proving the truth of
Dr. Wells's theory. For, although the patient made
some noise, — a phenomenon constantly witnessed in
the use of any anesthetic agent, — he nevertheless
said he felt no pain."
Deposition of David S. Dodge, M.D., of the city
of New York.
"I, David S. Dodge, physician, of the city,
county, and state of New York, being duly cau-
104
Discovery of Anesthesia.
tioned and sworn, do depose and say that I was for
many years a practicing physician and surgeon in the
city of Hartford, in the state of Connecticut, and
was well acquainted with the late Horace Wells,
dentist, and had knowledge of the fact that Mr.
Wells discovered the anesthetic properties of nitrous
oxid gas and sulfuric ether as early as the year 1844;
that he was frequently in the habit of using the
former agent in producing insensibility while pur-
suing his usual avocation. * * * In conversa-
tion he mentioned several disappointments he ex-
perienced during a visit to Boston, about the winter
of 1844-45, when he was invited to administer the
gas to a patient previous to an operation to be per-
formed in the presence of the class of Dr. Warren's
medical students; that the gentlemen of the faculty
had no confidence in the proposed use of the gas, and
that while he (said Wells) was endeavoring to ad-
minister the gas to a patient as above, he was greatly
annoyed by the offensive remarks and the occasional
sneers of the audience."
Extracts from the deposition of P. W. Ellsworth,
M.D., Hartford, Conn.
''Toward the close of 1844 I was informed that
Dr. Wells had discovered an agent by means of
which the body could be rendered insensible to pain
under dental operations. * * * It was then
notorious here that such a discovery had been made.
* * * j n j an uary, 1845, I witnessed a success-
es
The Fiftieth Anniversary
ful dental operation, being the extraction of a tooth
without pain, by administering nitrous oxid gas.
>jt ^ 5JC i(l ^ H 5 H 5
"Very early after the discovery of Dr. Wells, and
before I heard anything of the pretensions of Dr.
Morton, to wit, some time in the year 1845, Dr.
Wells spoke to me respecting the comparative
safety of nitrous oxid gas and sulfuric ether, and I
gave him my opinion in favor of nitrous oxid gas,
and advised him to confine himself to the use of that
agent."
Extracts from the deposition of E. E. Marcy,
M.D., of the city of New York.
"About the year 1838 I settled as a physician and
surgeon in the city of Hartford, Conn., and con-
tinued to reside there and practice my profession up
to 1859, when I removed to this city and have since
been engaged in practice here. I was intimately ac-
quainted with Dr. Horace Wells, surgeon-dentist,
late of said Hartford, deceased.
JjC 5jS % $Z ^J 5jC >£
"I further say that some time in the fall of 1844
Dr. Wells came to my office and informed me that
by administering the nitrous oxid gas he could ex-
tract teeth without pain. * * * I went to his
office and witnessed the extraction of a tooth from
the person of F. C. Goodrich, Esq., of said Hartford,
by Dr. Wells, after nitrous oxid gas had been in-
haled, and without the slightest consciousness of
106
Discovery of Anesthesia.
pain on the part of the gentleman to be operated
upon. * * * That it was in the fall of 1844, I
am positive; and within two or three days after I
had understood Dr. Wells had made the discovery.
><c ^ >H ^ ^ sjs sjs
"Immediately after the discovery the fact be-
came generally known in Hartford, and was the
subject of much conversation. Dr. Wells was ex-
ceedingly enthusiastic upon the subject; was inces-
santly conversing about it, and prosecuting his ex-
periments. Numerous trials were made by Drs.
Ellsworth, Berresford, Riggs, Terry, and myself,
both in large and small operations, which fully es-
tablished the efficacy of the gas. * * * Know-
ing, as before remarked, that the inhalation of sul-
furic ether vapor produced similar effects to those
of the gas, from numerous former trials, as above
alluded to, I suggested to Dr. Wells the employ-
ment of the vapor of rectified sulfuric ether, at the
same time detailing to him its ordinary effects, upon
the economy, and the method of preparing the article
for use. Our first impression was that it possessed all
the anesthetic properties of the nitrous oxid gas,
was equally safe, and could be prepared with less
trouble, thus affording an article which was not ex-
pensive, and which could be always kept on hand.
At the same time I told Dr. Wells that I would pre-
pare some ether and furnish him with some of it
to administer, and also make a trial of it myself in a
surgical case which I expected to have in a few days.
This conversation took place in Dr. Wells's office at
107
The Fiftieth Anniversary
the time the tooth was extracted from Mr. Good-
rich. Accordingly, within two or three days after
that event I administered the vapor of rectified sul-
furic ether in my office to the person alluded to in
my conversation with Dr. Wells, and after he had
been rendered insensible to pain I cut from his head
an 'encysted tumor' of about the size of an English
walnut. Dr. Wells came in during the operation,
and sufficiently early to form an opinion on the sub-
ject. It was entirely successful, and conclusively
proved to Dr. Wells and myself the anesthetic prop-
erties of ether vapor. Dr. Wells then wished me to
investigate the subject carefully and endeavor to as-
certain whether this vapor was as safe as the gas.
He informed me that Dr. Riggs had told him he had
inhaled both of these substances when in Washing-
ton (now Trinity) College, and that it was his im-
pression, from the effects of the two upon himself
and others, as well as from the views inculcated by
Professor Rogers in his lectures upon these sub-
stances before the class, that the inhalation of the
ether vapor was more dangerous than that of the
nitrous oxid gas. Accordingly, at the urgent re-
quest of Dr. Wells, I read what could easily be pro-
cured in relation to both articles, and formed the
opinion that the constituents of the gas were more
nearly allied to the atmospheric air than those of
ether vapor; that the former was more agreeable and
easy to inhale than the latter, and upon the whole
was more safe and equally efficacious as an anesthetic
agent, which opinion I communicated to Dr. Wells.
10S
Discovery of Anesthesia.
All this took place before Dr. Wells went to Boston
to announce his discovery to the faculty there."
Extracts from the deposition of John B. Terry,
dentist, of Hartford, Conn.
'That I was well acquainted with the late Dr.
Horace Wells from about the year 1840. In the
year 1844 I was residing in this city in practice of my
profession as a dentist. Immediately after the re-
puted discovery of Dr. Wells, in 1844, I was in-
formed respecting it by himself and witnessed many
experiments by him, and saw the apparatus by which
he administered the nitrous oxid gas for the purpose
of rendering his patients insensible to pain in the
extraction of teeth. I knew of his discovery prior
to his going to Boston to make it known to the
medical men there; on his return from Boston, Dr.
Wells told me he was disappointed in its operation;
there was, he said, too great hurry or some defect in
preparing the gas; that the ammonia perhaps was
not good; but he still expressed a determination to
convince the world that it was a valuable discovery,
and a full belief that any surgical operation could be
performed without pain under the influence of
nitrous oxid gas. Dr. Wells was obliged to sus-
pend his business at intervals, much to his regret, as
he said if he could have continued it he could have
made a great deal of money in extracting teeth un-
der the influence of the gas. During the time he
was engaged in his profession he continued to make
improvements in the construction of his inhaling ap-
109
The Fiftieth Anniversary
paratus, in the nitrate of ammonia, of which the gas
was made, in the gas itself, and its mode of prepara-
tion from the time of his discovery to his death.
These improvements I continued to use afterward;
I had an office adjoining the one usually occupied by
the late Dr. Wells, and we were associated together
on the 19th day of December, 1846, in the practice
of dentistry; for nearly a year before this we were
associated without terms of partnership, and while
he was absent I attended to his business in part and
made him an allowance. * * * When he was
absent I administered the gas for him. I am cer-
tain that prior to October, 1846, I was in the fre-
quent habit of administering the gas. * * * I
think I have administered more of this gas for dental
purposes than any other person, and I am well ac-
quainted with all its effects. Before Dr. Wells left
for Europe he spoke about making known his dis-
covery there, and at my recommendation took out
an apparatus for administering the gas. * * *
One of his objects in going to Europe was to publish
his discovery there; when Dr. Wells was in Europe
I received letters from him saying he was meeting
with great success; our partnership was then exist-
ing, and was not dissolved till after his return."
Extracts from the deposition of John Braddock,
dentist, of Hartford, Conn.
"During the year 1845 I was i n tne practice of
dentistry in this city for the period of about six
months. I came to Hartford in the month of Jan-
Discovery of Anesthesia.
uary, 1845, from the city of Philadelphia, where I
had been in business about a year. Immediately on
my return from Philadelphia I learned from Dr.
Wells himself that he had discovered that, by the
use of the nitrous oxid gas, teeth could be extracted
without pain. ***********
"The discovery of Dr. Wells was notorious in
Hartford at that time; it was a common topic of con-
versation, and I have no hesitation in saying that in
my opinion Dr. Wells was the first to discover and
use an agent by means of which dental and surgical
operations could be performed without pain.
"In the spring of 1845 I saw several teeth ex-
tracted for different persons under the influence of
this agent, by Dr. John Riggs, with the most sat-
isfactory results. The patients seemed to experi-
ence no pain whatever, and after the operations were
performed and the effects of the gas had passed
away they so expressed themselves."
Deposition of E. E. Crofoot, dentist, of Hart-
ford, Conn.
" * * * I knew the late Dr. Wells intimately;
he had the reputation of having discovered a mode
of extracting teeth without pain; I never saw any of
his operations, but have seen those on whom he had
performed. I have had some personal experience in
the use of anesthetic agents, having extracted two
teeth for a Miss Angelina Griswold, of West Hart-
ford, while under the influence of nitrous oxid gas.
Both teeth were removed at one sitting, and in a sat-
The Fiftieth Anniversary
isfactory manner. This was in the year 1845 or
1846, previous to a severe sickness which I had, com-
mencing in September, 1846, which continued many
weeks."
Deposition of Abel Ball, dentist, of Boston,
Mass.
« * * * j n j 845 Dr. Wells called at my
office and informed me that he had made 'an impor-
tant and valuable discovery.' He stated that he had
discovered that by the inhalation of nitrous oxid
gas pain could be entirely prevented during dental
and surgical operations, and added that he had come
to this city for the purpose of introducing his dis-
covery to the notice of the medical faculty and the
public generally here. And I believe this to have
been his only object in coming to Boston at that
time. * * * Shortly before he left for Europe
he called on me and stated that he was going to
Paris to establish his claim as such discoverer before
the medical faculty there. After his return from
Paris he called on me again, and spoke of his success
in establishing his claim."
Extracts from the deposition of Francis C. Good-
rich, of Hartford, Conn.
* * * In the latter part of the year 1844
I learned that Dr. Wells had made a very important
discovery, by which he could render the nervous sys-
tem insensible to pain under severe surgical opera-
tions. This was accomplished by the use of nitrous
Discovery of Anesthesia.
oxid gas. In the month of November or Decem-
ber, I think in November of the year above men-
tioned, and after the experiment had been tested in
a measure, I submitted to the operation of having
a tooth extracted by Dr. Wells while under the in-
fluence of nitrous oxid gas, which was performed in
the presence of Drs. Marcy, Kitteridge, and Riggs,
and was unattended with even the slightest sensa-
tion of pain to the nervous system. * * * Soon
after the operation to which I submitted, as men-
tioned above, I witnessed a similar experiment upon
two persons, — namely, J. Gaylord Wells and Wil-
liam H. Burleigh, Esq., both having one or more
teeth extracted by Dr. Wells, apparently, and as
they testified, without pain.
"I was also familiar with the fact that, succeeding
these experiments, Drs. Riggs and Terry com-
menced and continued the use of the gas more or
less frequently in their extensive practice of dental
surgery, and I regard it as a fact with which the
people of Hartford were more or less familiar that
nitrous oxid gas, when inhaled in the respiratory
organs, would have the effect upon the nervous sys-
tem to produce insensibility to pain; that it had
been and then was successfully used in severe dental
and surgical operations. * * * I am quite cer-
tain that, at a period commencing as early as De-
cember, 1844, it was a matter with which many of
the citizens of Hartford were personally familiar.
>|< >£ ^c ^s >j< ^c ;js
"Immediately after this operation to which I
submitted (referring to the extraction of one of the
The Fiftieth Anniversary
teeth, which he so pertinently describes), a conversa-
tion ensued between Drs. Marcy and Wells in regard
to the use of ether as a substitute for nitrous oxid
gas, in favor of its use as being more easily pre-
pared, though not so safe to use, and nearly if not
positively identical in its effects upon the nervous
system. Dr. Marcy expressed himself as perfectly
familiar with the effects of ether on the system, and
decided to use it in a surgical operation which he
was shortly after to perform."
Extracts from the deposition of John Gaylord
Wells, of Hartford, Conn.
« * * * Having heard of the discovery I
availed myself of the opportunity, and Dr. Wells
extracted a tooth for me immediately after the ex-
traction of his own. It was certainly in the month
of December, 1844. The gas was given from a large
bag. On this occasion I had one tooth removed,
and a number afterward at different times, and all
without pain. ***********
"I heard of others having teeth drawn under the
influence of the gas, and induced some to go. The
subject was a topic of common conversation among
my friends for several years after my first tooth was
extracted under the influence of the gas, and I often
heard Dr. W r ells converse on this subject, and he
continued to consider it a very valuable discovery."
Deposition of William H. Burleigh, of Hartford,
Conn.
''A little more than two years since I learned that
Dr. Wells, dentist, of this city, had made the discov-
114
Discovery of Anesthesia.
ery that by the use of an exhilarating gas or vapor
he could render the nervous system insensible to
pain under severe surgical operations, and that he
was using it in his practice with great success. Hav-
ing an opportunity to witness its effect on several
persons during the operation of extracting teeth, I
was so delighted and surprised with its manifest suc-
cess that I desired a trial of it on myself. The gas
was accordingly administered and two carious teeth
were extracted from my lower jaw without the least
suffering on my part, though ordinarily, owing to
the firmness with which my teeth are fixed in my
jaw, I suffer extreme pain from their extraction."
Deposition of Norman W. Goodrich, of Hart-
ford, Conn.
" * * * In the month of December, A.D.
1844, I heard that Dr. Wells had discovered a mode
of preventing pain during dental operations. I first
learned this fact from J. G. Wells, of this city, who
informed me that he had a tooth extracted by Dr.
Wells without any pain whatever. Soon after this
I learned that Dr. Wells was constantly extracting
teeth for persons without pain by administering ex-
hilarating gas, as it was sometimes called. Some-
time during the month of December, aforesaid, I
accompanied J. G. Wells to the office of Dr. Wells
for the purpose of witnessing an experiment upon
said J. G. Wells, while under the influence of the gas.
On reaching the office of Dr. Wells and making
known our object, he informed us that Dr. Riggs,
"5
The Fiftieth Anniversary
who occupied an adjoining office, was desirous of ex-
perimenting with the anesthetic agent discovered
by him (Dr. Wells), and he would therefore adminis-
ter the gas and allow Dr. Riggs to extract the tooth.
Accordingly, Dr. Riggs was called in and extracted
the tooth, after Dr. Wells had administered the gas.
After Mr. J. G. Wells had inhaled the gas a few
times he appeared to lose all consciousness, and
manifested no signs of pain during the extraction
of the tooth. On recovery from the effects of the
gas he remarked that he felt no pain whatever.
"A few days after the above experiment Mr. Wil-
liam H. Burleigh and myself went to Dr. Wells's to
have teeth extracted. We were accompanied by
T. C. Goodrich, Henry R. Tracy, and others, whose
names I do not now recall. This was just before
dusk. When we entered the office we found, among
others, a boy who held a large tooth in his hand,
which he showed us, saying that Dr. Wells had just
extracted it for him under the influence of the gas.
He said he felt no pain, and did not know when the
tooth was pulled. Mr. Burleigh and myself told Dr.
Wells we had come to take the gas and have teeth
extracted. Dr. Wells replied that he had been giv-
ing the gas and pulling teeth all day, and was so
tired and lame in consequence that he was unable
to do anything more that day. But if we wanted
our teeth out then he would administer the gas and
let Dr. Riggs come in and draw the teeth. We
agreed to that arrangement. Dr. Riggs came in;
the gas was administered first to Mr. Burleigh and
116
Discovery of Anesthesia.
his tooth extracted by Dr. Riggs. Mr. Burleigh
seemed to experience no pain, and afterward said
he felt none whatever. **.***,.,***
"A few months after this operation I accom-
panied Walter S. Williams and our wives to the
office of Dr. J. B. Terry, dentist, of this city, for the
purpose of witnessing further experiments with this
agent. Mr. Williams took the gas for the purpose
of having a large tusk, which was very prominent
and inconvenient, extracted. After inhaling a suf-
ficient quantity of gas, Dr. Terry applied his instru-
ments and endeavored to draw the tooth; he pulled
upon it several times, and finally laid down his in-
struments and said he was unable to extract it.
During all this operation Mr. Williams seemed to
suffer no pain, and on his recovery from the effects
of the gas he said he had not felt the slightest sensa-
tion of pain.
"During the years 1845 an d 1846 I was con-
stantly hearing of successful experiments with this
gas by Dr. Wells and other dentists of this city."
Deposition of Horace E. Havens, of Hartford,
Conn.
" * * * That some time between the 1 st of
November, 1844, and the 1st of November, 1845, I
called at the office of Dr. Horace Wells, corner of
Asylum and Maine streets, in this city, and re-
quested Dr. Wells to administer the gas to me for
the purpose of having a tooth extracted; the gas
was given to me from a large black bag with a
mouth-piece ; I had heard that it was very successful
in allaying pain in the extraction of teeth; I breathed
117
The Fiftieth Anniversary
it a short time and Dr. Wells took out the tooth;
Dr. Wells thought I should be easily affected, and
gave me a smaller dose than usual, as he said the
consequence was that I was not fully affected,
though the pain was very much mitigated; I felt
the operation some, though it was very trifling; I
had two teeth extracted after this by Dr. Riggs
(J. M. Riggs, of Hartford), and then took nitrous
oxid gas made by him in a large cask; the gas was
taken from a bag, and during the operation I felt no
pain whatever; this was while John G. Wells was
with Mr. Burr in the Secretary's office, and was in
1845, previous to November 1."
Deposition of Thomas Martin, of Hartford,
Conn.
" * * * In the summer of 1845, I think be-
fore the middle of July, Dr. Wells extracted a tooth
for me while I was under the influence of nitrous
oxid gas. * * * The tooth — a large double
one — was extracted by Dr. Wells himself. I felt no
pain during the operation, and was much pleased
with its effects. * * * It was a notorious fact
that Dr. Wells and other dentists in this city were
and had been extracting teeth for a long time prior
to October, 1846, and under the influence and by
the agency of some anesthetic agent."
Extract from the deposition of John Gaylord
Wells, of Hartford, Conn.
After having stated that he had one tooth ex-
tracted while under the influence of the gas in the
118
Discovery of Anesthesia.
month of December, 1844, and a number after at
different times, and all without pain, he proceeds as
follows:
"On one occasion sulfuric ether was administered
by Dr. Wells. I am quite sure it was early in 1845,
a long time anterior to the period when Dr. Mor-
ton, of Boston, first announced his discovery. The
ether was unpleasant in its effects, though the tooth
was extracted without pain. I therefore advised my
friends not to use it, but rather the exhilarating gas.
"The number of teeth extracted under the in-
fluence of the gas was five, and one under the influ-
ence of the ether. In my former deposition it was
stated six were extracted. It might be inferred that
it was at one sitting. They were extracted, how-
ever, at most part at different sittings. Only once
did I have two removed at a time. I am sure the
ether was given early in 1845. The ether was not
given from a bag, but from some different appara-
tus."
Deposition of Lydia Goodwin, of Hartford,
Conn.
* * * That in the spring of the year A.D.
1845 or 1846, — according to the best of my recol-
lection, in the year A.D. 1845, — I na d two teeth ex-
tracted by Dr. Horace Wells, then a dentist in this
city. * * * The agent used in the extraction
of my teeth was called by Wells gas."
Deposition of Angelina Griswold Whiting, of
West Hartford, Conn.
« * * * That in the month of July, 1846,
I was spending a few days at Dr. E. E. Crofoot's, in
"9
The Fiftieth Anniversary
the city of Hartford, and during that time I had
two teeth extracted by Dr. Crofoot while I was un-
der the influence of nitrous oxid gas."
Extract from the deposition of Walter S. Wil-
liams, of Hartford, Conn.
"I accordingly took the chair, and Dr. Terry ad-
ministered to me what I supposed to be the newly-
invented gas by Dr. Wells. This was administered
to me from a mouth-piece attached to a pipe leading
to a bottle or bag. I inhaled the gas and very soon
became insensible. Dr. Terry then applied his in-
struments, but did not succeed in extracting it.
When I came to myself, which seemed like waking
out of sleep, I saw Dr. Terry standing by my side
seemingly exhausted; he said: 'I tried with all my
might, but could not fetch it.' I experienced no
pain whatever during the operation."
Extract from the deposition of Hon. James
Dixon, member of the House of Representatives in
the twenty-ninth and thirtieth Congresses from the
First Congressional District of Connecticut.
" * * * I would add that the discovery of
Dr. Wells was notorious in Hartford in the spring of
1845, an d was then, and for some time had been,
and continued to be, a frequent topic of conversa-
tion. It excited great attention, and was deemed
of much importance."
Deposition of William W. Goodwin, of Boston,
Mass.
" * * * I am a native of Hartford, Conn.,
where I resided and pursued my business until Feb-
Discovery of Anesthesia,
ruary, 1845, with the exception of the years of 1837
and 1838. About the middle of February, 1845, I
came to this city, where I have since resided. Sev-
eral weeks before leaving Hartford it was very gen-
erally reported that the late Dr. Horace Wells, of
that city, was extracting teeth without pain by an
agent called by him nitrous oxid gas. Shortly be-
fore leaving Hartford, I called at the office of Dr.
Wells and he showed me the nitrate of ammonia
from which he prepared the gas ; also some bags and
apparatus used by him in administering the gas."
Letter from C. B. Brewster, dentist, of Paris.
"Paris, January 12, 1848.
"My Dear Dr. Wells, — I have just returned from
a meeting of the 'Parisian Medical Society,' where
they have voted that 'to Horace Wells, of Hartford,
United States of America, is due all the honors of
having first discovered and successfully applied the
uses of vapors or gases, whereby surgical operations
could be performed without pain.'
"They have done even more, for they have
elected you an honorary member of their society.
"This was the third evening that the society had
deliberated upon the subject. On two previous oc-
casions Mr. Warren, the agent of Mr. Morton, was
present, and endeavored to show that to his client
were due the honors; but he, having completely
failed, did not attend at the last meeting.
"The use of the ether took the place of nitrous
oxid gas, but chloroform has supplanted both; yet
The Fiftieth Anniversary
the first person who first discovered and performed
surgical operations without pain was Horace Wells,
and to the last day of time must suffering humanity
bless his name.
"Your diploma and the vote of the P. M. S. shall
be forwarded to you. In the interim you may use
this letter as you please.
"Believe me ever truly yours,
"Brewster."
Extract from the deposition of Mrs. Elizabeth
Wells.
"In the fall of 1846 my husband received a letter
from Dr. Wm. T. G. Morton, of Boston, informing
him that he had discovered some preparation or
compound that would produce insensibility to pain,
and which he had patented, and proposed that my
husband should undertake a sale of the rights; to
which letter my husband replied. Shortly after my
husband concluded to go to Boston, with a view
to ascertain what Dr. Morton had discovered, and
invited me to accompany him. This was, if I mis-
take not, on Saturday. We left home in the early
morning train, and arriving in Boston in time to
take dinner with the family where we stopped. Im-
mediately after dinner my husband went out to see
Dr. Morton, and returned after an absence of about
two hours. On his entering the room I asked him
whether Morton had discovered anything new. He
replied: 'No>; it is my old discovery, and he does not
know how to use it.' He added that he perceived
Discovery of Anesthesia.
what it was immediately on entering Dr. Morton's
room, from the atmosphere; he said it was nothing
but ether. I asked my husband whether he in-
tended to assist Dr. Morton in selling his patent
rights. He replied: 'No; he would have nothing to
do with him.' We spent the Sabbath in Boston,
and took the morning train for Hartford on Monday
following."
Extract from the deposition of Elizabeth Wil-
liams, of Hartford, Conn.
"Some time after this I saw Dr. W. T. (^Morton
at Stafford Springs, and learning that he'was a den-
tist I spoke of my tooth, and mentioned the fact
that Dr. Wells had administered gas to me. I re-
marked to him that I was among the first that took
the gas. He asked about the effect and operation
of the gas, and made no intimation of any acquaint-
ance with or knowledge of the gas, or of any anes-
thetic agent, and the conversation passed off by Dr.
Morton's saying that he had recently invented some
framework for teeth. According to the best of my
remembrance and belief, I took the gas of Dr. Wells
in the office of Dr. Riggs, on the 6th day of March,
A.D. 1845, and I saw Dr. Morton at 'Stafford
Springs' and had the conversation above referred to
in the summer of 1846; it was certainly at no later
date."
Deposition of Oswin R. Roberts, of Hartford,
Conn.
"I came to Hartford in June, 1845, an d soon
after my arrival I heard of Dr. Wells's discovery.
123
The Fiftieth Anniversary
"Dr. W. T. G. Morton called at our office this
winter, prior to January, 1853, and had a long con-
versation with us respecting the discovery of anes-
thetic agents. He called to inquire about Wells's
buying picture frames of us. Dr. Morton statett
that he took his idea from Dr. Wells's use of nitrous
oxid gas, but that the gas failed, and he went on
perfecting the discovery until it resulted in the use
of sulfuric ether."
124
FEB 19 1901
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